Charles W. Holland
Peter Neumann
Planning Systems, Inc., 7923 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22102
Current survey techniques typically measure seafloor backscattering from 30--50 deg in grazing angle. Low-angle measurements (less than about 30 deg) of seafloor backscattering require vertical directionality in the source and/or receiver to eliminate paths that have more than one bottom interaction. Several experiments using explosive line arrays (ELA) have been conducted to explore the potential for measurement of low-angle seafloor scattering. Air deployable explosive line arrays are attractive because they are relatively inexpensive, are command activated, and appear to be quite stable from ping to ping. Seafloor scattering measurements conducted with the ELAs will be compared with co-located measurements using SUS as well as a low-frequency coherent source array. [Work supported by the ONR/AEAS Program.]