| A small body of literature exists regarding the spatial coherence of the incoherent (or non-specular) component of the field scattered from the sea floor. Within this literature, the seafloor is described using simple models that consider only one or two properties that determine the spatial coherence. Additionally, the literature has focused on describing the average spatial coherence over an ensemble of seafloor realizations. The variability of the coherence that is observed for individual pings has been described neither theoretically nor through experimental observation.;This research has extended the existing models for the mean spatial coherence to include a broader range of physical processes that determine the coherence of the field scattered from the seafloor near normal incidence. In particular, the effects of sensor directivity, seafloor slope, sediment scattering strength, interface transmission coefficient, sediment attenuation coefficient, sediment layer thickness, and temporal windowing have been explored. This is accomplished through the development of a model for the spatial coherence that is based upon the van Cittert-Zernike theorem.;The results of this modeling show that in many realistic scenarios it is a combination of multiple parameters that determine the observed spatial coherence. This represents a significant extension in understanding that reaches beyond those processes that have been described previously. In particular, the application of a temporal window was found to have a significant impact on the spatial coherence in many scenarios. This research provides the first documentation of this effect.;In addition to the modeling effort, an experiment was conducted where the spatial coherence is measured for scattering from the lake bed at Seneca Lake, New York. In this experiment, the spatial coherence of the scattered field was measured over a number of pings. This data set was used to form an ensemble that compares favorably to numerical modeling. Additionally, significant ping-to-ping variability was observed in this experiment. This variability is quantified through a three-parameter fit and the statistics of these parameters are discussed. This is the first observation and documentation of single ping variability of spatial coherence. |
