Three-dimensional source tracking in an uncertain environment.

Area of Science:

• Oceanography
• Acoustics
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Accurate underwater source tracking is crucial for naval operations and marine research.
• Environmental uncertainties, such as seabed and water column variations, significantly challenge traditional tracking methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a robust 3D source tracking algorithm for uncertain ocean environments.
• To assess the algorithm's performance under various environmental conditions and signal-to-noise ratios.

Main Methods:

• The algorithm integrates matched-field focalization for environmental and source-bearing parameter estimation.
• It employs the Viterbi algorithm for range-depth estimation, incorporating physical constraints on source velocity.
• Performance is validated using synthetic data and real-world measurements from the Barents Sea.

Main Results:

• The developed algorithm significantly outperforms tracking with poor environmental estimates.
• Performance approaches that achieved with exact environmental knowledge.
• Successful tracking of a towed source and a surface ship was demonstrated in shallow water, outperforming simpler methods.

Conclusions:

• The proposed approach offers a substantial improvement for 3D source tracking in challenging ocean conditions.
• It effectively mitigates the impact of environmental uncertainty on tracking accuracy.
• The method shows practical applicability for real-world underwater acoustic surveillance.