Horizontal Correlation of Long-Range Bottom Reverberation in Shallow Sloping Seabed

The performance of active sonar detection systems is seriously affected by the reverberation at the bottom of the waveguide in shallow water. In order to improve the performance of active sonar detection, it is necessary to understand the horizontal correlation of shallow-water bottom reverberation in active towed-array processing technology. However, the current research on the spatial correlation of reverberation is mainly based on vertical correlation, little work has been done on the horizontal correlation characteristics of long-distance seabed reverberation, and there is no support from sea test data. In this paper, the coupled mode reverberation model is applied to the horizontal correlation, and is studied according to the receiving position, time, and frequency. The simulation results show that, for the long-range bottom reverberation, the lateral correlation is greater than the longitudinal correlation in the horizontal space. By introducing the adiabatic mode solution, the mathematical model of horizontal correlation in the range-dependent waveguide with depth is derived. The numerical results show that the influence of the seabed dip angle on the horizontal correlation should be considered and that the horizontal correlation is affected obviously by the propagation effects of the sloped sea floor. Finally, the experimental data processing and analysis are given and verify the correctness of the algorithm.