Layer filtering for seafloor scatterers imaging

The image source method in acoustics is well known to simulate reverberation. It has also been recently used for characterization of seafloor sound-speed structure. The idea is to detect image sources by imaging techniques to obtain information about the environment. In this paper, the idea is to use the detection of image sources to remove reflections from plane interfaces in recorded signals and perform imaging with this filtered signal. This imaging process highlights scatterers because their wave front shapes are different than those from plane interfaces. Applications can be in seafloor buried object detection or scattering analysis from interface roughnesses or volume heterogeneities.