LAUSR

This paper estimates seabed and water-column properties of a shallow-water site in the Chukchi Sea using vessel noise recorded on a single ocean-bottom hydrophone. A shallow-hazards seismic survey vessel transited with a fixed heading, passing within 200 m of the hydrophone. Sound pressure levels as a function of frequency and range are inverted using a trans-dimensional (trans-D) Bayesian approach to estimate range-independent environmental properties (sound-speed profile, water depth, and seabed geoacoustic properties). The trans-D inversion allows the data to determine the most appropriate environmental model parameterization in terms of the number of sound-speed profile nodes and subbottom layers. The inversion also estimates the vessel source levels, source depth, hydrophone height above the seabed, a range-correction factor, and error statistics, and provides uncertainty estimates for all model parameters and parameterizations. The sound-speed profile is found to be in good agreement with a measured...