Trial Support & Data Analysis for 2015 ONR Sea-Trial

Funding is provided to process selected PAS data from the LCAS15 sea trial to statistically characterize the reverberation and clutter using K-distributions and correlation statistics to aide in PAS/CAS comparisons. Continuous Active Sonar (CAS) is a promising new technique to improve sonar performance. This effort is designed to support the Littoral Continuous Active Sonar (LCAS) Multi-National Joint Research Project (MN-JRP). This project was designed to validate and explore many aspects of CAS performance and capabilities. Comparisons of CAS to Pulsed Active Sonar (PAS) will be made as part of this effort. This proposal focuses on the use of the ARL-PSU Five Octave Research Array (FORA) to support these objectives. Project Goal This proposal has two primary objectives. The first is for the PI and ARL-PSU technicians to participate in the 2015 LCAS experiment taking place off the coast of La Spezia, Italy. This includes transportation and maintenance of the FORA system as well as data collection during the sea trial. It also includes dissemination of data collected by PSU during this trial to multinational entities which ONR deems necessary. The second objective is for the PI and Dr. John Preston to process selected PAS data from the trial using FORA cardioid array data to statistically characterize the reverberation and clutter using K-distributions and correlation statistics to aide in PAS/CAS comparisons.