Acoustic phase measurements from volume scatter in the ocean

Abstract

A primary goal of this thesis has been to demonstrate that stable, useful measurements of the orientation of the acoustic signal vector as a function of range and time can be obtained from ocean backscatter, and that this orientation, or acoustic phase, can be related to the local sound speed distribution. Such a measurement is quite distinct from the related problem of detecting the rate of phase change, which forms the basis of Doppler technology. Doppler measurements can be made using echoes from a single point, or a sparsely distributed set of targets. Consistent and useful measurement of absolute phase, is inherently more difficult, since it depends upon the positions of individual scatterers, which are normally random and sparse relative to the acoustic wavelength.