Bayesian source tracking via focalization and marginalization in an uncertain Mediterranean Sea environment

J Acoust Soc Am. 2010 Jul;128(1):66-74. doi: 10.1121/1.3436530.

Abstract

This paper applies Bayesian source tracking in an uncertain environment to Mediterranean Sea data, and investigates the resulting tracks and track uncertainties as a function of data information content (number of data time-segments, number of frequencies, and signal-to-noise ratio) and of prior information (environmental uncertainties and source-velocity constraints). To track low-level sources, acoustic data recorded for multiple time segments (corresponding to multiple source positions along the track) are inverted simultaneously. Environmental uncertainty is addressed by including unknown water-column and seabed properties as nuisance parameters in an augmented inversion. Two approaches are considered: Focalization-tracking maximizes the posterior probability density (PPD) over the unknown source and environmental parameters. Marginalization-tracking integrates the PPD over environmental parameters to obtain a sequence of joint marginal probability distributions over source coordinates, from which the most-probable track and track uncertainties can be extracted. Both approaches apply track constraints on the maximum allowable vertical and radial source velocity. The two approaches are applied for towed-source acoustic data recorded at a vertical line array at a shallow-water test site in the Mediterranean Sea where previous geoacoustic studies have been carried out.

MeSH terms

  • Acoustics*
  • Bayes Theorem*
  • Likelihood Functions
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Motion
  • Oceanography / methods*
  • Radar*
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Sound*
  • Time Factors
  • Uncertainty*
  • Water*

Substances

  • Water