Identification of noise sources of an underwater moving target based on a linear array

Based on bearing-time property of a moving acoustic source, a method was presented for identification of tonal noise sources of an underwater moving target with a uniform linear array (ULA). The bearing-time curve of a moving target was obtained by utilizing high resolution DOA with the spatio-temporal two dimensional MUSIC (multiple-signal classification) algorithm. After the curve was smoothed with outlier removing and mean filtering, the moment when noise sources passed broadside of the linear array was estimated accurately with the least square method according to the prior information of the noise sources' motion trajectory. Locations of the noise sources were determined by referring to the position of a known acoustic source. Considering the actual measurement situation, the spatio-temporal MUISC method was modified for near field acoustic sources and coherent acoustic sources. Numerical simulations showed the validity of the proposed method.