Full‐field optimum detection in an uncertain, anisotropic random wave scattering environment

The optimum detection of an unknown object in an uncertain random wave scattering environment is considered. A physics‐based approach to the design of the optimum detector is presented which merges statistical physical modeling of the acoustic scattering medium with a probabilistic description of environmental prior knowledge within a Bayesian decision‐theoretic framework. For the high‐frequency, shallow water, reverberation‐limited environment considered herein, the parametrization of the acoustic medium is essentially limited to modeling acoustic interaction with anisotropic seafloor microroughness with unknown horizontal wave‐number spectrum parameters. Simulation results, presented in terms of receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curves, aim to illustrate three principal points: (1) the cost of ignoring the bottom reverberation spatial coherence when it is present in the data; (2) the sensitivity of the likelihood ratio detector for a known environment to incorrect prior knowledge of the microrough...