Characterization of the left/right bearing ambiguities for passive line arrays

The symmetry of a straight horizontal line array produces a left/right bearing ambiguity that makes it impossible to determine on which side of the array a source is located. A simple technique for resolving left/right ambiguities is to break the symmetry by curving the array. Under certain common conditions, however, significantly curved arrays still possess left/right ambiguities that depend on the source’s range and the beamformer’s focal length. These ambiguities can be modeled, given a source and array configuration, to produce a prediction of source localization capability. Comparisons with actual data were generally consistent with modeled results in the cases considered. The presentation will include a description of how the ambiguities are modeled, and a comparison between modeled and experimental results. Considerations on how curved arrays can be configured to minimize ambiguities will also be discussed.