Single mode excitation, attenuation and backscatter in shallow water

Abstract

Normal mode theory is used to illustrate that a vertical array of weighted sources driven in an

appropriate frequency band can be used to minimize the combined effects of attenuation and bottomgenerated backscatter in shallow water. Results are presented for three canonical geoacoustic

models using both a winter and summer sound speed profile. It is shown that through selective

excitation of only mode 1 there exists an optimum frequency band providing both minimum attenuation and minimum bottom-generated backscatter. The results indicate that the center frequency of the optimum band increases as the critical angle decreases.