Abstract
Characterization of the effective signal to noise ratio (eSNR) of broadband underwater acoustic environments as a function of platform motion provides a practical and useful predictive metric of the adversity of an acoustic communication channel. Presented here is an analysis of estimated and actual eSNR associated with diverse moving platform scenarios for the practical case of an acoustic response function modeled as a Gauss-Markov process. A ray model of the arrival structure of various refractive environments along with a set of canonical motion scenarios provides a space of time-varying channel operators that captures the bulk effects of platform motion. Considered here are various superpositions of elliptical and translational motion effects. It is demonstrated that the eSNR exhibits both a low SNR gap and a high SNR ceiling relative to the actual received SNR (rSNR). These results give insight into useful source power levels and provide a correspondence between coherence degradation and vehicle speed and acceleration rates. These model based results lend credence to previous observations of eSNR made from high frequency broadband underwater acoustic observations [2008 NRL Review, pp. 123–125], [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130(4), (2011)].