Source localization in the presence of internal waves

The possibility of determining the location of an acoustic source in the presence of internal waves is investigated. Source localization problems require environmental information as inputs. Internal waves cause uncertainties in the sound speed field. In previous work [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 1410-1422 (1991)], it was found that a source can often be localized in an uncertain environment by including environmental parameters in the search space and tweaking them, but usually not deter-mining their true values. This is possible due to a parameter hierarchy in which the source position is more important than the environmental parameters. The parameter hierarchy is shown to also apply to uncertainties associated with internal waves. Due to differences in the nature of the parameter space, this problem is solved with a statistical approach rather than a parameter search technique such as simulated annealing.