Volumetric Passive Sonobuoy Array of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Wires

A sonar system for detecting underwater acoustic signals, which comprises:

• a) a plurality of hydrophone units capable of converting acoustic impulses to electrical signals, said hydrophone units being substantially vertically oriented when deployed in a body of water, and said hydrophone units occupying at least some of the positions of an N×M horizontal array wherein N is the number of rows and M is the number of columns in the array;
• b) means for applying two-dimensional Chebyshev mathematical weighting to the electrical signals from the individual hydrophone units such that each individual signal from each hydrophone unit is assigned a respective weighting number according to its position in the array and a numerical value is assigned to each individual signal corresponding to the strength of the electrical signal as adjusted by the respective weighting number;
• c) means for deploying said hydrophone units in the body of water.