Detection range of a passing submerged emitter of sound in ambient noise

Abstract

An underwater acoustic detection problem is studied in which the ambient noise present at a receiver is calculated, given information describing environmental conditions, including windspeed, and the positions of nearby ships which act as sources of background noise. The signal, whose detection is sought, is narrowband and transmitted from a source that passes by the receiver along a straight track. Cumulative Probability of Detection (CPoD) is calculated along a series of tracks with increasing closest-point-of-approach distances to the receiver. Two detection ranges are analyzed, a so-called “defender” detection range and an “intruder” detection range. Both are conservative measures associated with CPoD equaling 0.5 during the transit of the submerged vessel. Predictions of the detection range are compared across independent attempts to solve the same problem with different modelling approaches. The spread of results (i.e., the “reproducibility” of the predictions) is discussed and reasons for differences are highlighted. Environmental conditions that strongly affect detection performance are discussed, as is the use of CPoD as a single-valued metric to describe detection performance.