Signal processing--Computer simulation

An acoustic measurement system is developed to estimate the compressional wave attenuation of marine sediments in real time. A chirp sonar transmits filtered digital reflection data to a signal processing computer that processes the data on an AT&T DSP32C chip. The signal processing computer estimates and displays the center frequency of the processed pulse as it is attenuated by the ocean sediments. Wavelet modelling establishes the relationship between the center frequency shift and relaxation time, from which the sediment type and compressional wave attenuation are determined. Frequency contours from two different data sites demonstrate that the system is able to reliably estimate sediment type and compressional wave attenuation. Error introduced by noise is below 1% for noise levels less than 0.1 of the normalized processed signal. Random error in the estimates is minimized by determining reliable frequency values and by ensemble averaging the values.

A computer algorithm is developed to provide real-time cross range spatial quantization for a single beam forward look SONAR similar in operation to a typical sidescan SONAR. This involves the computer simulation of return time signals generated by scanning a surface profile. The time signals are normalized with respect to the scanning altitude to simulate the application of a time varying gain, and then are used as input to the surface estimation algorithm. The algorithm requires two time signals acquired from adjacent scanning positions and solves a stereoscopic geometry in arriving at the surface estimate. Final estimates have an error of less than 1% in target height determination within a set range of operation.