Abstract:
In this paper, we present a kinetic model for sound propagation in a fluctuating marine environment based on an integro-differential radiative transfer equation. The paper formulates an inverse problem for the radiative transfer equation with a localized pulsed sound source to determine the discontinuity surfaces of the scattering coefficient from the known time-angular density flux distribution. We develop a numerical algorithm to solve the inverse problem, based on introducing a special indicator function that identifies the locations of the sought surfaces. Computer simulations of the probing process at frequencies from 100 to 600 kHz demonstrate the effectiveness of algorithm proposed in identifying the boundaries of inhomogeneities at long distances.
Keywords:acoustic sounding, radiative transfer equation, inverse problem, scattering coefficient, function discontinuity surfaces.