Scattering from an object in a stratified medium. II. Extraction of scattering signature

This paper investigates methods to extract and/or characterize the scattering signature of an object in a stratified medium based on data received on a vertical array. Scattering by an object in free space transforms the incident (plane‐wave) field into a scattered field with a characteristic angular distribution. The scattering function can be estimated by correlating the scattered field with the incident field over a domain of incident and scattered angles. In an ocean waveguide, the acoustic field incident on the (submerged) object involves many multipath arrivals. Likewise, the scattered field from the object is modified by multipath propagation from the scatterer to the receiver array. Hence, extraction of the scattering function requires a method to deconvolve the channel transfer function from the received data. As the scattering function is a function of both the incident and scattered angles, a comprehensive characterization requires data covering a range of incident and scattered angles. For a d...