Comparisons among ten models of acoustic backscattering used in aquatic ecosystem research

The article of record may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4937607Analytical and numerical scattering models with accompanying digital representations are used increasingly to predict acoustic backscatter by fish and zooplankton in research and ecosystem monitoring applications. Ten such models were applied to targets with simple geometric shapes and parameterized (e.g., size and material properties) to represent biological organisms such as zooplankton and fish, and their predictions of acoustic backscatter were compared to those from exact or approximate analytical models, i.e., benchmarks. These comparisons were made for a sphere, spherical shell, prolate spheroid, and finite cylinder, each with homogeneous composition. For each shape, four target boundary conditions were considered: rigid-fixed, pressure-release, gas-filled, and weakly scattering. Target strength (dB re 1 m2) was calculated as a function of insonifying frequency (f 1⁄4 12 to 400 kHz) and angle of incidence...This work was supported by the NOAA Fisheries Advanced Sampling Technologies Working Group, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Oceanic Partnership Progra