Estimation of the Distance to a Local Inhomogeneity on an Acoustic Path in Shallow Water in the Presence of Background Disturbances

We consider the problem of estimating the position of a local inhomogeneity on a stationary acoustic path between a single sound source and vertical receiving array in a shallow water waveguide in the presence of background disturbances. A local bottom rise and a soliton-like internal wave are chosen as model inhomogeneities. It is proposed to determine the distance from the source to the inhomogeneity by cepstral analysis of the amplitude of the first waveguide mode isolated on the array, with preliminary deformation of the frequency axis. Numerical modeling is used to study the stability of this approach in the presence of several local inhomogeneities or additional disturbances: bottom slope, background internal waves, wind waves, and bottom irregularities. Estimates of the signal-to-noise ratio required to implement the approach are pro-vided.