Wideband inverse filtering to improve active sonar detection in background reverberation

The problem of detecting a known signal in background reverberation with an estimated reverberation spectrum is addressed. In our approach, the prewhitener is a wideband inverse filter estimated from a large data base of reverberation spectra. Simulations and experimental results are presented in the context of detecting a target lying on the seafloor with a wideband transducer. The proposed detector is compared to an AR prewhitener. The results indicate that the proposed detector is well suited for our wideband application.