Geoacoustic inversion of vertical line array data in shallow water with an ice cover

A technique for solving the inverse problem of estimating the effective acoustic parameters of the bottom is developed for shallow water with an ice cover. The initial data for the inversion are the experimental sound field amplitude at a vertical line array, and a set of precalculated dependences simulated for different effective bottom parameters. The range be-tween a sound source and the array is an order of magnitude higher that the water depth. In the calculations, the bottom is considered as a liquid homogeneous medium with different values of the sound speed, density, and attenuation coefficient. Numerical modelling is carried out within the framework of normal-mode theory. The obtained values of bottom parameters are considered effective if they provide a maximum agreement between experimental and simulated data. The technique has been tested in a field experiment on Lake Baikal with a solid ice cover.