Theoretical model and error analysis of acoustic correlation current profiler (ACCP)

Acoustic correlation current profiler (ACCP) is suitable for long range current profiling. Based on the ocean acoustic reverberation theory, the authors constructed the theoretical model of ACCP and obtained the spatial correlation function of the ACCP sonar array and its minimal velocity estimate variance. Maximum likelihood estimate is adopted to process the ACCP signal. The coded signal, whose autocorrelation has peaks at time lag 0 and τ, was transmitted. This special transmission signal cuts down the processing complexity greatly and reduces signal overlapping. The estimate variance and its relationship with SNR and range are given. All these results are very useful for designing ACCP with good performance