Speaker: Scott Loranger, Acoustician and Applications Scientist, Kongsberg Discovery

Topic: Applications of broadband acoustic backscatter

Broadband acoustic backscatter is capable of detecting, identifying, and quantifying a vast array of targets in the marine environment. What started as a tool for fisheries biomass estimation, has evolved into a system for identifying fish species, quantifying oil spills, monitoring carbon sequestration sites, monitoring power plant intakes, monitoring freshwater turbines, quantifying turbulence, and mapping water masses. Broadband acoustic quantification relies on combining physics-based models of broadband acoustic scatter with direct measurements of either single targets or aggregations of targets. New applications continue to be developed as the instrumentation and modelling advances and so do data storage and processing capabilities. This presentation will focus on the use of broadband acoustics for target detection, identification, and quantification, drawing from research conducting by the author and from the broader acoustics research community.