Estimating the Array Tilt with the Received Signal in East China Sea

An abnormal multipath arrival structure was found in the signal from a receiver array during an acoustic experiment in East China Sea. The cause for the abnormal pattern was found due to the tilt of the array, which results from the strong sea currents. The array tilt was figured out with the Bellhop acoustic ray model by matching the simulation results with the received signal. Results were further testified by the depth sensor data. Given that the ocean observations are always sparse in time and spatial domain, the method in this paper provides a new source to help determine the sea current direction in the complex shallow water environment.