Multi-static, opportune-source-exploiting, passive sonar processing
OwnerBen R. Breed, William Lee Mahoodinventors
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Abstract
A multistatic passive sonar is disclosed having a time-aligned source combiner, that exploits the cross-correlation between a target beam and all other beams to detect and measure the range of a target. This combiner performs long-term cross-correlation between the target beam and each individual source beam, and then aggregates the individual correlation results, time aligned based on the scenario geometry, and averaged to enhance the composite signal-to-noise ratio of the range measurement. In doing so, innocuous acoustic sources may be opportunistically exploited as if the array were part of a multi-static, active (e.g., sonar) system.
Claims12
A method for passively locating an object using acoustic signals comprising:
- receiving a target beam including acoustic information from multistatic sources reflected by a target,
- receiving said acoustic information directly from plural source beams;
- and
- processing the target and plural source beams to determine location information including a range of the target.
A method of acoustically locating objects, comprising:
- detecting acoustic signals on plural beams;
- correlating a first acoustic signal on a first beam with at least a second and third acoustic signal, respectively, on a second and third beam, respectively, of said plural beams to output a correlated second and third signal, respectively;
- time-aligning the correlated second and third signals to form a time-aligned signal;
- and
- determining the location of an object along a path of the first beam based on the time-aligned signal.
A passive acoustic system for use in connection with acoustic information from multistatic sources reflected by at least one target received by an array of acoustic detectors, comprising:
- a beam correlator operably coupled to receive the acoustic information from the plural acoustic detectors;
- and
- a time-aligned combiner operably coupled to the beam correlator, whereby the beam correlator and time-aligned combiner are operable to process the acoustic information to determine location information including a range to said at least one target.
A multistatic sonar system, comprising:
- plural acoustic detectors operable for receiving acoustic information from multistatic sources reflected by at least one target;
- a cross-correlator operably coupled to the plural acoustic detectors for cross-correlating a target beam with plural source beams to form plural target-source cross-correlated signals;
- a time-aligned combiner operably coupled to the cross-correlator;
- and
- a location detector operably coupled to the time-aligned combiner, whereby the cross-correlator, time-aligned combiner and location detector are operable to process the acoustic information to determine location information including a range to said at least one target.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.