This study investigates the information content of ship noise received on a drifting volumetric array of hydrophones in shallow water marine environments for the purposes of conducting acoustic thermometry or other environmental inversions. Passive inversions for physical oceanographic parameters are conducted using travel time differences, determined by cross-correlating ship noise received on hydrophones suspended beneath drifting buoys. Ships are tracked using the automatic identification system. Information content gained from the inversion is assessed using traditional a posteriori error analysis. Numerical simulations using a standard normal mode propagation model are used to test limitations of the proposed approach with respect to frequency band, drifting receiver configuration, precision, and accuracy of the inversion results, along with sensitivity to environmental and position mismatch. Performance predictions using this model are compared with results from a field experiment using at-sea data collected off the coast of New London, CT, USA, in Long Island Sound. Information gathered using passive acoustic inversion methods on drifting arrays can be used to constrain general circulation models, in coastal environments, where ship noise is ubiquitous, environmental data is sparse, and the oceanography is dynamic and important for understanding large-scale ocean processes.

中文翻译：

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用于无源环境传感的漂移体积阵列船舶噪声信息含量

本研究调查了浅水海洋环境中水听器漂移体积阵列接收到的船舶噪声的信息内容，以进行声学测温或其他环境反演。物理海洋学参数的被动反演是使用旅行时间差进行的，旅行时间差是由悬浮在漂流浮标下的水听器接收到的互相关船舶噪声确定的。使用自动识别系统跟踪船舶。使用传统的后验误差分析评估从反演中获得的信息内容。使用标准正常模式传播模型的数值模拟用于测试所提出的方法在频带、漂移接收器配置、反演结果的精度和准确度方面的局限性，以及对环境和位置不匹配的敏感性。将使用该模型的性能预测与使用在美国康涅狄格州新伦敦海岸附近长岛海峡收集的海上数据进行的现场实验结果进行比较。在漂移阵列上使用被动声反演方法收集的信息可用于约束一般环流模型，在沿海环境中，船舶噪声无处不在，环境数据稀少，海洋学是动态的，对于理解大规模海洋过程很重要。