Probability models of received scattered and ambient fields

Abstract

With the aid of the appropriate statistical-physical models of underwater scattering and ambient field generation, explicit first-, second-, and higher-order probability distributions of such fields as they appear in a typical receiver can be constructed. The lower-order distributions, at least, are analytically tractable, and thereby provide working statistical representations of an important class of nongaussian channels. Similar statistical-physical models can be constructed for other, broad classes of nonnormal channels, such as those produced by atmospherics, seismic disturbances, and man-made electromagnetic and acoustical interference. These models are based on a poisson distribution of (primary or scatter) sources in the medium or the given domain. For example, in an ocean or lake environment this corresponds to the usual condition of dominant primary radiation, or scattering in the medium or at its interfaces; equivalently for manmade interference, this reflects the inherently independent emissive properties of the sources involved. Here, the general approach is very briefly outlined and a number of specific results, typical of these phenomena generally, are presented.