LONG-TERM GOALS 1. Dynamics of clutter

The long term goal of this research is to develop a general method to determine the dynamics of clutter observed in sonar imagery such as Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing1 (OAWRS). We aim to use waveguide remote sensing techniques to obtain time varying density images of clutter in a shallow water environment, and use these images to develop a robust technique to invert for clutter dynamics. Currently there is no robust method to determine the dynamics of clutter from density images. Our research aims to ultimately distinguish clutter from intended targets by exploiting the differences in their dynamics. 2. Clutter characterization The long term goal of this research is to develop a Greens ’ Theorem-based full-field model to quantify scattering from man-made cylindrical targets in an ocean waveguide, and use the model to characterize and distinguish returns from such man-made targets from clutter such as fish schools. 3. Hurricane classification The long term goal of this research is to analyze underwater noise measurements in the vicinity of a hurricane to help in surface wind speed estimation.