Abstract: A method is proposed for measuring the detection range of passive sonar in uncertain ocean environments. The relationship between the detection range of passive sonar and the uncertain parameters of ocean environment are inferred when there are single and multiple uncertain parameters in the ocean environment, the probability distribution functions of detection range of passive sonar are obtained, and then the detection ranges of passive sonar in ocean environment are determined based on the maximum likelihood criterion. For the cases of the single and multiple uncertain parameters of ocean environment, the detection ranges of passive sonar are calculated. The proposed method makes full use of information of PDF of the uncertain environmental parameters, and needs not to specify the type of PDF of ocean environmental parameters and set any threshold for determining the detection range as well.

Key words: acoustics, passive sonar, detection range, uncertain ocean environment, transmission loss, maximum likelihood criterion