Statistical evaluation of 80 kHz shallow-water seafloor reverberation

Abstract

In this work a comparison is presented between 80 kHz reverberation statistics obtained at shallow water sites around Sardinia and Sicily. The data include measurements from several distinct bottom provinces, including sites with Posedonia Oceanica sea grass and sites covered wzth live shellfish. The reverberation statistics did not always exhibit a Raylezgh probability distribution function (PDF), but exhibited statistical distributions with longer tails. Several more appropizate models of reverberation PDF were examined in order to better describe the measured amplitude distributions. The Rayleigh mixture and the K models were found to be the most robust in describing the observed data.