Passive fathometer processing.

Ocean acoustic noise can be processed efficiently to extract Green's function information between two receivers. By using noise array-processing techniques, it has been demonstrated that a passive array can be used as a fathometer [Siderius, et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 1315-1323 (2006)]. Here, this approach is derived in both frequency and time domains and the output corresponds to the reflection sequence. From this reflection sequence, it is possible to extract seabed layering. In the ocean waveguide, most of the energy is horizontally propagating, whereas the bottom information is contained in the vertically propagating noise. Extracting the seabed information requires a dense array, since the resolution of the bottom layer is about half the array spacing. If velocity sensors are used instead of pressure sensors, the array spacing requirement can be relaxed and simulations show that just one vertical velocity sensor is sufficient.