Applicability of the single-scattering approximation for the ocean acoustic sounding

A mathematical model in the work that describes the process of pulsed high-frequency acoustic sounding in a fluctuating ocean is considered. The inverse problem for the non-stationary equation of acoustic radiative transfer is investigated. It consists in finding the coefficient of volume scattering from the angular distribution of the radiation flux density at a given point in space. In the single scattering approximation, a formula is obtained to find the scattering coefficient. A series of computational experiments was carried out to substantiate its use in acoustic sensing of a fluctuating water medium. A numerical analysis has shown that the application of the single scattering approximation is justified at least at a sensing range of the order of 100 meters. Moreover, double and triple scattered fields have the main effect on the error. (paper)