Data Fusion of Electric Field and Acoustic Data

Conventional acoustic ASW methods are limited in littoral regions, where multipath caused by widely varying sound speed profiles and cluttered boundary conditions is concurrent with high ambient noise. For this reason additional detection methods are desirable. Many potential targets of interest generate incidental electric fields from the galvanic potential field generated by dissimilar metals in contact with seawater. Ultimately, these low-frequency e-fields propagate through the water and can be detected at a moderate distance with e-field sensors; when combined with the acoustic data, the fused data can provide additional performance in terms of reduced false alarm rates, tracking, and classification. The opportunity, then, is to develop a tactically deployable, hybrid e-field and acoustic buoy that can support a multilayered data fusion approach to improve airborne ASW capability in cluttered littoral regions. This program will develop a conceptual buoy design that incorporates both the acoustic sensor and the e-field sensor for tactical surveillance and classification of marine vessels. The design will include in-buoy signal processing algorithms for data fusion of the e-field and acoustic sensors to increase probability of detection. System performance metrics will be predicted through simulation.