Verification and Validation Study for Extraction of Ocean Bottom Acoustic Backscattering Strengths

Researchers from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the Applied Research Laboratories: University of Texas (ARL:UT) collaborated on a verification and validation study for a through-the-sensor methodology of extracting bottom scattering strengths from the AN/SQS-53C sonar. The primary goal was to establish the capabilities for the methodology, Sonar Bottom Active Boundary Loss Estimation (SABLE), in the area of characterizing acoustic interactions with ocean boundaries for exercises involving this sonar. SABLE features include the capability to obtain georeferenced maps of acoustic information (i.e., collecting information within latitude/longitude grid cells). NRL investigations established the validity of the SABLE approach to bottom backscattering computation and checked the accuracy of the results by performing independent processing of received acoustic time series. The comparisons indicated that differences in scattering strength in SABLE and NRL processing for the selected ping set were on the order of 1-2 dB. [Work supported by SPAWAR PMW-120.] The original document contains color images.