Statistical Analysis of Sonar Performance Prediction in Littoral Environments

This paper presents the Statistical Analysis of Passive Sonar Performance Prediction in Littoral Environments. Passive sonar performance and acoustic prediction mainly refer to the detection range. The inputs for estimating the sonar detection range include the Figure of Merit (FOM), Transmission Loss (TL), and Ambient Noise (NL) of the operation region. These inputs are directly related to the ocean environment; hence, the detection range is, too. A littoral environment is highly variable both in time and space. This paper proposes a methodology for analyzing the statistical properties of the detection range from measurements of ocean water column properties. It is found that the detection range of the southwestern region of Taiwan in the summer is 13.8km with 5.9km as the standard deviation and in the winter is 37.8km with 33.6km as the standard deviation.