Circular synthetic aperture sonar imaging of simple objects illuminated by an evanescent wavefield

This paper is motivated by the case where an underwater object located within the sediment is illuminated by a grazing acoustic beam below the critical angle. The included experimental work uses a liquid-liquid interface and vertically inverted geometry as a stand-in for the water-sediment boundary. In the super-critical regime sound in the water column refracts into the sediment before scattering. However, for sub-critical illumination a rapidly decaying evanescent wavefield is generated in the sediment near the water-sediment interface. For compact objects located in the sediment near the interface this can result in strong backscattering signals suitable for acoustic image reconstruction using synthetic aperture sonar techniques. Certain properties of the evanescent wavefield such as the vertical phase-locking behavior, the rapid amplitude decay with distance from the interface, and the low-pass filter effect have understandable ramifications for the image formation process and for characteristics of the reconstructed image. In particular, circular imaging techniques require correct placement of the imaging plane to properly focus an object; however, for backscattering (monostatic) evanescent image formation the imaging plane may be placed at the interface and the target will remain in focus regardless of burial depth. A laboratory experiment using simple scatterers is presented.