Acoustic image reconstruction of elastic shells in water from ramp response signatures

A technique for generating a target image utilizing acoustic transient response signature data is explained and demonstrated for elastic shells in water. The technique combines features of physical optics inverse diffraction and feature‐space target identification approaches. Complex harmonic backscattering spectrum in the low resonance range is used as input data for this approach. A periodic ramp in response waveform synthesized from these data is shown to be correlated to the cross‐sectional area versus distance along the line‐of‐sight, or profile function, of the targets measured. Visual images simulating an isometric view of the target are constructed.