Stable Components of the Sound Field at the Aperture of an Array under Multipath Propagation Conditions

The paper discusses representation of the wave field on a vertical array in an underwater sound channel as the superposition of components stable with respect to large-scale perturbations of the sound velocity field. Each such component is formed by a narrow beam of rays incident on the array aperture. This representation makes it possible to modify traditional matched field processing by switching from comparison of the measured and calculated fields at the array to comparison of the stable components of these fields. It is shown that the modified approach in solving the problem of source localization makes it possible to weaken the requirements on the accuracy of the mathematical model of the medium.