Validity of matched-field source localization in under-ice shallow water

Underwater source localization, such as matched-field processing (MFP), triangulation, and waveguide invariant, have been extensively investigated in temperate oceans. Seasonal or yearlong ice floes or ice cover exist in high-latitude sea regions and the polar ocean. In under-ice shallow water, sound interacts frequently with ice and sea bottom, which results in dramatic reflection, attenuation, and modal dispersion. The boundary effects generate more uncertainties in model-based source localization methods, for example, the MFP method. In this work, we develop the preliminary scheme of the under-ice MFP. The performances of the incoherent Bartlett and minimum variance algorithms are verified by real data collected by a 12-element Vertical line array with a space of 1 m for a source (650–750 Hz) at 2.7-km range and 5-m depth in the northern Yellow Sea in winter. The experimental findings demonstrate that the range error is within 2% and the depth error is within 10%. The error primarily originates from the uncertainty of sea bottom parameters.