Short-pulse method for acoustic backscatter amplitude calibration at MHz frequencies

The short-pulse acoustic backscatter amplitude calibration technique of Dragonette, Numrich, and Frank [(1981), J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 69, 1186-1189] is evaluated for MHz frequency systems, as are used to measure environmental suspended sediment concentration. The technique involves measuring backscatter from a short transmit pulse reflected by a solid spherical target, and treating the first received reflection as equivalent to that from a perfectly rigid sphere. In this implementation, the target sphere is 16 mm diameter tungsten carbide. The target is mounted on a stiff support rod rather than being suspended on a filament, enabling precise positioning of the sphere relative to the transducer. That the support rod does not significantly influence the calibration is demonstrated by reconstructing the backscatter time series, including the sequence of pulses from surface (Rayleigh) waves, using elastic scattering theory. Calibration results are verified in a separate experiment in which the backscatter from dilute aqueous suspensions of 400-600 μm diameter polystyrene beads in water is measured within the 1-2 MHz frequency band. After correcting for the additional attenuation within the scatterers, the resulting values of the backscatter form factor are within 20% of the theoretical predictions.