Seabed characterization from broad-band acoustic echosounding with scattering models

Acoustic echoes obtained during high-resolution shallow marine seismic surveys contain information about the statistical nature of the sedimentary bottom and its spatial variability. Use of a broad-band seismic source and an appropriately chosen data acquisition window makes the acoustic responses particularly amenable to quantitive analysis. The work reported utilizes experimental frequency-domain spatial coherence functions of along-track acoustic echoes as empirical metrics of bottom character, and by virtue of their correlation with known sediment types, as objective bases for remote sediment classification. Theoretical relationships between parameters describing sediment surface topographies and echo coherence are derived for the case of dominant water-sediment interface acoustic scattering. The diverse experimental data base was acquired from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland using a 1- to 10-kHz Huntec DTS system. Bottom photographs, cores, and grab samples combined with expert geological synthesis provide qualitative and quantitative control.