Application of time reversal to passive acoustic remote sensing of the ocean

Abstract

This paper investigates a novel approach to processing records of ambient noise in the ocean that are measured concurrently in spatially separated locations. The approach is a synthesis of two well-known phase-coherent signal processing techniques. At the first stage of processing, an approximation to the transient acoustic Green function is found by the method of noise interferometry. At the second stage, the approximate Green function is time reversed and back propagated from the location of one of the receivers, thereby producing a focus in the vicinity of the other receiver. Unlike the earlier work, measurements at just two points (rather than vertical array measurements) are used when the sound-propagation range is large compared to the ocean depth. The requirement for optimal focusing of the back-propagated field is shown to lead to extraction of estimates of the unknown physical parameters of the waveguide and, hence, to passive acoustic remote sensing of the ocean.