Acoustic wave scattering from two solid boundaries at the ocean bottom: reflection loss

An acoustic wave scattering model is formulated and solved for three homogeneous layers consisting of a thin solid sediment layer sandwiched by semi-infinite water and solid basalt media. The model is applied to two cases to analyze both the physical parameters affecting reflection loss and the effects of interface roughness scattering. It is shown that effects of attenuation in the sediment layer, especially of S-waves, combine with conversion and scattering processes of the basalt interface to constitute the dominant mechanism of reflection loss, especially in the small grazing angle directions. The scattering process is found not only to produce the well-known acoustic energy loss from specular to nonspecular directions, but also to alter the conversion efficiency between P and S waves with a resulting loss or gain