Method and apparatus for acoustic source tracking using a horizontal line array

Abstract

An apparatus for processing passive acoustic signals received on a horizontal line array that were either emitted from an underwater object or echo returned from an object, is proposed to track the motion (bearing change and range change) of an object (target) relative to the receiver horizontal line array. Adaptive array processing for a moving object is biased for a moving source when the number of data samples is limited by the stationariness condition. Motion compensation can be carried out in the beam domain by beam shifting for a bearing changing object and frequency shifting for a range changing object. The method includes receiving acoustic signals from the target, determining the beam covariance matrices, determining the target bearing rate and range rate, processing the beam covariance matrices by compensating for the target motion, and producing a beam power plot versus time. Interference signal is suppressed when the interference source does not have the same motion (bearing and range rate) as the target. The method does not need detailed environmental acoustic information of the sound channel normally required to model the sound propagation.

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