Effects of azimuthal dependent sediment layer structure on broadband acoustic propagation during Seabed Characterization Experiment in 2017

Seabed physical properties profoundly affect acoustic energy upon interaction. The inherent structural composition of the sediment column interacting with acoustic waves has been a topic of research for decades. Besides the intrinsic physical properties that cause signal attenuation, one of the features that various sediment structures share when interacting with acoustic signals, is causing azimuthal dependence on the broadband acoustic wave propagation. This phenomenon studied in late 1990's [Badiey et al., JASA, 1997a, b] was revisited during the Seabed Characterization Experiment in 2017 (SBCE 2017). The sediment layer structure was obtained from the Chirp Sonar survey collected in the summer of 2015 during pilot study. These data plus CTD and bathymetric measurements are used to construct environmental input along radial tracks for acoustic field computations and range-varying wave number spectral calculations to support SBCE 2017 data analysis. The simulation results show azimuthal variability of ac...