Partial dereverberation used to characterize open circuit scuba diver signatures

The use of passive acoustics to detect self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) divers is useful for nearshore and port security applications. While the performance of a detector can be optimized by understanding the signal's spectral characteristics, anechoic recording environments are generally not available or are cost prohibitive. A practical solution is to obtain the source spectra by equalizing the recording with the inverse of the channel's impulse response. This paper presents a dereverberation method for signal characterization that is subsequently applied to four recorded SCUBA configurations. The inverse impulse response is computed in the least-square sense, and partial dereverberation of SCUBA is performed over the 6-18 kHz band. Results indicate that early reflections and late reverberation added as much as 6.8 dB of energy. Mean unadjusted sound pressure levels computed over the 0.3-80 kHz band were 130 ± 5.9 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m. Bubble noise carries a significant amount of the total energy and masks the regulator signatures from 1.3 to 6 kHz, depending on the regulator configuration. While the dereverberation method is applied here to SCUBA signals, it is generally applicable to other sources if the impulse response of the recording environment can be obtained separately.