On the relevance of studying the problems of acoustic tomography by methods of radiation transfer theory. A.A. SUSHCHENKO

Abstract

On the relevance of studying the problems of acoustic tomography by methods of radiation transfer theory. A.A. SUSHCHENKO (Institute of Applied Mathematics FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok).

The issues in the studying of the world’s ocean such as mineral exploration, monitoring and safety of underwater constructions, sea-bottom mapping assume as global character. All of them, to one degree or another, are the problems of acoustic tomography. The main goal of them is determination of quantitative characteristics of structural inhomogeneity based on measurements of the backscattered field. Typically, the properties of the medium and source are assumed to be known. There are several areas of application for solving inverse scattering problems: medicine, flaw detection, ocean acoustics, seismology. There are numerous papers devoted to the study of these applied problems. Authors mainly use the single scattering approximation to solve them. The problem inevitably becomes nonlinear and incorrect when considering the multiple scattering in a medium. Firstly, there is the non-uniqueness in the solution during inhomogeneities reconstruction. Secondly, there is the instability to measured data. The article provides literature review of the relevance directions of modeling of ocean remote sensing processes as inverse problems for the radiation transfer equation. The paper includes the relevance of analysis of the volume scattering in the ocean which is necessary for solving acoustic tomography problems such as the reconstruction of the sea-bottom scattering coefficient, bathymetry, reconstruction of inhomogeneities in the ocean water. In the conclusion, the existing research gaps in solving these applied problems are described.