Geoacoustic inversion using multipath pulse shape.

Experimental data, measured in a shallow water region of the Mediterranean Sea, are used to show that the variation of received intensity with time is well described by existing expressions [Harrison and Nielsen, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121, 1362-1373 (2007)]. These expressions indicate that the effect of the sea-water sound speed profile can be neglected for times greater than the peak intensity arrival. Beyond this time, intensity is shown to decay at a rate determined by the seabed acoustic properties in a manner very similar to that for an isovelocity water column. It is shown that a method of determining seabed acoustic properties, previously restricted to isovelocity water columns [Prior and Harrison, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 116, 1341-1344 (2004)], can consequently be used in the presence of a sound-speed profile. The method relates the decay rate of smeared multipath arrivals to the angular derivative of seabed reflection loss. Two datasets are studied and the method is used to describe average seabed properties and to detect changes in seabed type. The seabed descriptions thus derived are used to predict total received intensity as a function of source-receiver separation. Agreement between the propagation measurements and predictions is shown to be within measurement uncertainties.