Method of detecting and viewing low-power moving acoustic sources

Abstract

The inventive method relates to the field of submarine detection and deals in particular with the problem of detecting low-power acoustic underwater objects by passive detection systems, of the passive drifting buoy type, which are used by maritime patrol systems, for example. The method consists in processing the complex amplitude-azimuth spectrum of an acoustic signal received by a directional buoy. For different target models envisaged, this processing involves associating the complex frequency components of the received signal, located along the time-evolution curve of the frequency of a signal corresponding to a model target, and comparing the modulus and argument variation of these frequency components with the modulus and argument variation over time of the spectral components of the signal corresponding to the model, the processing using both the amplitude and azimuth information contained in the received signal. According to the invention, the processing can be used to produce representations of the evolution of the received signal, both in a frequency form and in a geographic form. In addition, it allows for the merging of data originating from several buoys being used simultaneously in one and the same area.