Theodore G. Birdsall
Kurt Metzger
Elec. Eng. & Comput. Sci. Dept., Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122
The ultimate goal of acoustic monitoring of ocean processes is to provide quality measurements of the right type to be assimilated into worldwide climate models. The immediate goals are to achieve the travel time resolution and accuracy necessary to provide the oceanographer and climate modeler with identifiable receptions of multipath or multimode arrivals. The economic antagonists are the hardware costs. The natural antagonists are signal spreading, attenuation, dispersion, scattering, continual change, human uncertainty, and noise. This paper illustrates how a signal processor can help organize the balances, lay out the interactions, and provide workable solutions. Examples from current measurements will be used to illustrate effective signal handling.