Bayesian environmental inversion of airgun modal dispersion using a single hydrophone in the Chukchi Sea

This paper presents estimated water-column and seabed parameters and uncertainties for a shallow-water site in the Chukchi Sea, Alaska, from trans-dimensional Bayesian inversion of the dispersion of water-column acoustic modes. Pulse waveforms were recorded at a single ocean-bottom hydrophone from a small, ship-towed airgun array during a seismic survey. A warping dispersion time-frequency analysis is used to extract relative mode arrival times as a function of frequency for source-receiver ranges of 3 and 4 km which are inverted for the water sound-speed profile (SSP) and subbottom geoacoustic properties. The SSP is modeled using an unknown number of sound-speed/depth nodes. The subbottom is modeled using an unknown number of homogeneous layers with unknown thickness, sound speed, and density, overlying a halfspace. A reversible-jump Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithm samples the model parameterization in terms of the number of water-column nodes and subbottom interfaces that can be resolved by the data. The estimated SSP agrees well with a measured profile, and seafloor sound speed is consistent with an independent headwave arrival-time analysis. Environmental properties are required to model sound propagation in the Chukchi Sea for estimating sound exposure levels and environmental research associated with marine mammal localization.