Improving the Physics of Applied Reverberation Models

The proposed work will address the core physics underlying acoustic reverberation as related to properties of the ocean environment and properties of the acoustic sources, receivers and waveforms that make up ocean-going acoustic systems of interest to the U.S. Navy. Present day active acoustic system performance models, which contain reverberation models as an essential component, are over twenty years old. At the same time, new applications for models come with new requirements as to their faithfulness to physics and execution speed. Several deficiencies are identified in current applied models, based on their deteriorating ability to meet the new demands. Many of these deficiencies can be addressed by on-going developments in related basic research programs. The proposed work matches the modeling gaps to research progress and outlines an approach for implementing new or modified algorithms and incorporating them into existing models in order to remedy the known deficiencies.