GOATS’ 2000 Multi-Static Active Acoustics in Shallow Water

The objective of the ocean acoustics components of the GOATS project is to develop a fundamental understanding of the 3D mid-frequency (1-20 kHz) acoustic environment associated with the mine countermeasures (MCM) problem in shallow water (SW) and very shallow water (VSW) and to develop efficient physics based propagation and scattering models incorporating aspect-dependent targets and seabed features, and the waveguide multipath effects. The goal is a consistent physicsbased modeling framework for high-fidelity simulation of bi-and multistatic sonar configurations for VSW MCM which may form the basis for new acoustic classification techniques based on spatial and temporal target resonance characteristics. Specific scientific objectives include the investigation of mechanisms responsible for sub-critical penetration into sediments in the mid-frequency regime (1-20 kHz), the effects of sediment porosity, and the coupling between the structural acoustics of targets and the environmental acoustics of the littoral waveguides.