The statistical analysis of acoustic backscatter samples recorded by multibeam echosounders can be a valuable tool for remote seafloor characterization and interpretation. The present paper aims at analyzing the statistics of backscatter data values, both in “raw” status and after various averaging operations, using field data. It is shown that the statistics of the data can be adequately described by a Weibull distribution parametrized by the incidence angle and the level of applied processing: the distribution of the averaged backscatter amplitude, processed according to various schemes, varies from a Rayleigh law for raw data to lognormal and finally to Gaussian distribution after successive averaging operations. Based on these results, some recommendations for the calculation of the mean backscatter strength are presented. Finally, the influence of high-amplitude scatterers in the backscatter probability density function is addressed; a scheme is suggested to separate the contributions of the substrate from the contributions of the scatterers on the statistical distribution of sonar data samples.

中文翻译：

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一种统计方法，用于分析和建模反向散射下的多波束回波，包括高振幅散射体的影响

由多波束回声测深仪记录的声学反向散射样本的统计分析可以成为远程海底特征和解释的有价值的工具。本文旨在使用现场数据分析处于“原始”状态以及经过各种平均运算后的反向散射数据值的统计信息。结果表明，数据的统计量可以通过由入射角和应用的处理水平参数化的威布尔分布来充分描述：根据各种方案处理的平均后向散射幅度的分布不同于原始的瑞利定律连续平均后，数据变为对数正态分布，最后达到高斯分布。基于这些结果，提出了一些计算平均反向散射强度的建议。最后，解决了高振幅散射体对后向散射概率密度函数的影响；建议一种方案，在声纳数据样本的统计分布上，将底物的贡献与散射体的贡献分开。