The Effects of Digital Sampling Rate and Bit Quantization on Passive Auditory Sonar Target Detection Performance

Modern signal-processing techniques have been applied in passive sonar to enhance sonar-operator performance for visually presented information. However, those same techniques degrade the auditory signal. These facts are surprising because, in many situations, such as the classification of transients and broadband signals with few tonal components, the sonar operator must rely heavily on auditory information. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the audio component of new sonar systems is not degraded by the use of inadequate digital techniques. This report describes our procedure for evaluation of digital sample rate and quantization and shows the significant degradation in detection performance as a function of both reduced sample rate and reduction in number of bits used to code signal amplitude.