Passive Source Localization Using Acoustic Intensity in Multipath-Dominant Shallow-Water Waveguide

The array invariant technique has been recently proposed for passive source localization in the ocean. It has successfully estimated the source–receiver horizontal range in multipath-dominant shallow-water waveguides. However, it requires a relatively large-scale hydrophone array. This study proposes an array invariant method that uses acoustic intensity, which is a vector quantity that has the same direction as the sound wave propagating through a water medium. This method can be used to estimate not only the source–receiver horizontal range, but also the azimuth to an acoustic source. The feasibility of using a vector quantity for the array invariant method is examined through a simulation and an acoustic experiment in which particle velocity signals are obtained using a finite difference approximation of the pressure signals at two adjacent points. The source localization results estimated using acoustic intensity are compared with those obtained from beamforming of the acoustic signals acquired by the vertical line array.