Non-Acoustic Detection of Moving Submerged Bodies in Ocean

Abstract

Although, acoustic techniques are currently the mainstay for detection and tracking of submerged bodies like submarine and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), advent of silent submarines and the ensuing reduction of acoustic signatures and development of anechoic coatings is making detection very difficult especially in shallow water environment. Though there are some promising non-acoustic techniques such as magnetic anomaly detection, LIDAR, bioluminescence detection etc for the same purpose, they have some inherent limitations which restrict their use for detection over a wide area and from a large distance. Against this backdrop detection of physical manifestations such as turbulent wake and internal waves generated due to platform movement by optoelectronic techniques increasingly becoming popular for detection and tracking of moving underwater objects. We present here the general features of turbulent wake and internal waves generated by moving submerged bodies and discuss the optoelectronic techniques for their detection.