Estimating the Amplitude of Wind Waves by Correlation Analysis of the Reverberation Signal

Abstract

Correlation analysis of low-frequency reverberation signals has been carried out by decomposing the reverberation into reference functions, formed as a set of signals reflected from a point scatterer moving along a circular trajectory. The choice of the reference signal is related to the model of sound scattering by inhomogeneities (bubbles) occurring in the near-surface layer and moving together with the orbital currents of wind waves. The study demonstrated that the correlation functions differ significantly (by 5–6 dB) for the region of position and negative Doppler frequencies of reverberation signals. A stable increase has been revealed for the maximum of the correlation function at certain radii of scatterer motion, which are related to the amplitudes of wind waves.