Underwater Target Ranging and Sound Speed Profile Inversion via Eigenray Propagation Time-Delay Matching

An underwater target ranging and sound speed profile (SSP) inversion algorithm for synchronous beacon is proposed. In the condition of actual SSP unavailable, based on the multipath propagation time-delay estimation, a genetic algorithm is employed to estimate the target range and SSP by eigenray propagation time-delay matching. Lake trial results show the algorithm could achieve target ranging and SSP inversion simultaneously.