Localization of a ship using a vertical array

What is it about?

Traditional approach to localizing a source (e.g., ship) using a vertical array is model-based matched field processing (MFP) which requires environmental knowledge. Instead, we have used a combination of blind deconvolution and array invariant to localize and track a ship of opportunity. The benefit of our approach is that we can also estimate the array tilt from the data.

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Why is it important?

Ships are loud broadband sources. Nevertheless, localizing a ship in the ocean is challenging because conventional approach such as MFP requires accurate environmental information. In addition, a vertical array is often tilted due to currents, which can be devastating if not accounted for in MFP. Further, MFP does not exploit the broadband nature of the ship noise. Our approach (1) extracts the Green's function between the source and the vertical array via blind deconvolution and (2) estimates the source range using the array invariant method based on the beam-time migration. As a result, no environmental knowledge is required to localize a ship.

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