Covariance Function of the Acoustic Backscatter from a School of Fish

A recently developed statistical model for first‐order scattered fields is used to predict the normalized covariance function of an underwater acoustic signal backscattered by a hypothetical school of fish. The fish school is configured as an oblate spheroid with the individual fish Poisson distributed within the school. Empirical covariance functions are determined using ensemble averaging techniques from experimental data obtained by insonifying an actual school of fish with gated 28.2‐kHz continuous‐tone signals. A comparison of theory with the experimental results is made.