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Navigating, Imaging, and Monitoring with the Coherence of Acoustic Signals
Center for Acoustics Research and Education
Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping
Coherence is a second order property of the acoustic field and describes the similarity of two signals. It can be analyzed in time, space, and frequency to access information about the underwater environment and how it is changing. This presentation will describe three current areas of research investigating the coherence of underwater acoustic scattering and its applications. The first uses coherence for underwater navigation in the development of a low-power and low-cost sensor for autonomous vehicles. The second uses coherence for improved imaging of unexploded ordinance in very shallow water. The third is studying the long-term changes in the coherence of acoustic scattering from the seafloor in the Gulf of Maine. The presentation will discuss results from these three investigations as well as areas of future investigations.
Thomas E. Blanford received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA, in 2012, and the Ph.D. degree in acoustics from The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA, in 2019. From 2012 to 2017, he was an Engineer with Analog Devices and InvenSense, where he developed low-power, high-performance microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphones. From 2019 to 2023, he was an Assistant Research Professor with the Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University with a faculty appointment in the Graduate Program in Acoustics. He is currently a Research Assistant Professor with the Center for Acoustics Research and Education and the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA. His research interests include the design and modeling of sonar systems, acoustic navigation, and signal processing in acoustics.
