Underwater acoustic digital signal processing and communications is an area of applied research that has witnessed major advances over the past decade. Rapid developments in this area were made possible by the use of powerful digital signal processors (DSPs) whose speed, computational power and portability allowed efficient implementation of complex signal processing algorithms and experimental demonstration of their performance in a variety of underwater environments. The early results served as a motivation for the development of new and improved signal processing methods for underwater applications, which today range from classical of autonomous underwater vehicles and sonar signal processing, to remote control underwater wireless communications. This book presents the diverse areas of underwater acoustic signal processing and communication systems through a collection of contributions from prominent researchers in these areas. Their results, both new and those published over the past few years, have been assembled to provide what we hope is a comprehensive overview of the recent developments in the field. The book is intended for a general audience of researchers, engineers and students working in the areas of underwater acoustic signal processing. It requires the reader to have a basic understanding of the digital signal processing concepts. Each topic is treated from a theoretical perspective, followed by practical implementation details. We hope that the book can serve both as a study text and an academic reference.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of the detection and processing of signals in underwater acoustics. Background material on active and passive sonar systems, underwater acoustics, and statistical signal processing makes the book a self-contained and valuable resource for graduate students, researchers, and active practitioners alike. Signal detection topics span a range of common signal types including signals of known form such as active sonar or communications signals; signals of unknown form, including passive sonar and narrowband signals; and transient signals such as marine mammal vocalizations. This text, along with its companion volume on beamforming, provides a thorough treatment of underwater acoustic signal processing that speaks to its author’s broad experience in the field.

This paper describes the results of current research at DREA in which techniques of optimum array processing are being applied to active sonar. We are presenting these results at the Advanced Study Institute in order to illustrate some actual applications for such processing and to point out some of the practical considerations which arise in real systems. In particular, the paper concerns the problems which arise when the individual sensor elements have a complicated directivity pattern themselves. This is a common phenomenon in active systems where the receiving sensors are complex resonant structures and are housed in a dome or towed body presenting various baffling and diffraction effects. Most treatments of array processing consider ideal elements which have well behaved directivity properties and are transparent to the field. The results of this paper show that where these properties are not met, careful in situ array measurements are required, and even with such measurements practical array gains may not be as good as predictions based on ideal sensors.

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Issues in Acoustic Signal/Image Processing and Recognition was held August 5-9, 1982 at the Cappuccini complex in San Miniato Italy. The Workshop was primarily concerned with the underwater acoustic signal processing and seismic signal analysis and a major effort was made to link these topics with pattern recognition, i~ge processing and artificial intelligence. Major issues and new approaches in these interrelated areas were closely examined in the Workshop. In addition to paper presentations three discussion sessions were held on! (1) spectral analysis in underwater acoustics, (2) seismic wave propaga tion, seismic imaging and migration, and seismic inversion, and (3) unresolved issues and future directions. This Proceedings volume includes most presentations made at the Workshop. The publication, like the meeting itself, is unique in the sense that it provides exten sive interactions among the closely related areas stated above. Such interactions which usually result in the integration of different systems or approaches are certainly much needed to achieve some performance breakthrough while individual systems or approaches reach their performance limit. I am grateful to all participants for their active participation that makes the Workshop very productive, and to Dr. Lewis J. Lloyd and Dr. Ralph Goodman for their help to arrange an informative visit to the SACLANT ASW Research Centre for the Workshop participants. I am confident that this publication will be equally produc tive to report important current research results and near-future research activity particularly in underwater acoustic signal processing.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute on Adaptive Methods in Underwater Acoustics was held on 30 July - 10 August 1984 in LLineburg, Germany. The Institute was primarily concerned with signal processing for underwater appl ica tions. The majority of the presentations, when taken together, yield a definite picture of the present status of understanding of adaptive and high resolution processing, setting out the progress achieved over the past four years together with the major problem areas remaining. Major effort was made to obtain a commensurate contribution of tutorial and advanced research papers. It is my hope that the material in this volume may be equally well suited for students getting an introduction to some of the basic problems in underwater signal processing and for the professionals who may obtain an up-to-date overview of the present state of the art. This might be especially useful in view of the controversy and lack of adequate interrelationships which have marked this rapidly expanding field in the past. Practical reinforcement of this picture is provided by the material concerning digital and optical processing technology, giving some guidance to achievable adaptive and high resolution techniques with current processing devices. The formal programme was extended and detailed by a series of six evening work shops on specific topics, during which informal discussions took place among the participants. Summaries of these workshops are also included in these Proceedings.

Digital Underwater Acoustic Communications focuses on describing the differences between underwater acoustic communication channels and radio channels, discusses loss of transmitted sound in underwater acoustic channels, describes digital underwater acoustic communication signal processing, and provides a comprehensive reference to digital underwater acoustic communication equipment. This book is designed to serve as a reference for postgraduate students and practicing engineers involved in the design and analysis of underwater acoustic communications systems as well as for engineers involved in underwater acoustic engineering. Introduces the basics of underwater acoustics, along with the advanced functionalities needed to achieve reliable communications in underwater environment Identifies challenges in underwater acoustic channels relative to radio channels, underwater acoustic propagation, and solutions Shows how multi-path structures can be thought of as time diversity signals Presents a new, robust signal processing system, and an advanced FH-SS system for multimedia underwater acoustic communications with moderate communication ranges (above 20km) and rates (above 600bps) Describes the APNFM system for underwater acoustic communication equipment (including both civil and military applications), to be employed in active sonar to improve its performance