Matched-field processing using measured replica fields

An approach for avoiding the problem of environmental uncertainty is tested using data from the TESPEX experiments. Acoustic data basing is an alternative to the difficult task of characterizing the environment by performing direct measurements and solving inverse problems. A source is towed throughout the region of interest to obtain a database of the acoustic field on an array of receivers. With this approach, there is no need to determine environmental parameters or solve the wave equation. Replica fields from an acoustic database are used to perform environmental source tracking [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94, 3335-3341 (1993)], which exploits environmental complexity and source motion.