Tutorial Topics

During the BOAT workshop, we will focus on developing physical intuitions behind the equations for key ocean acoustics concepts. We aim for providing an on-ramp for participants to think about ocean acoustics problems in a holistic manner. Therefore, we designed the tutorials to be interactive and provide materials at a conceptual level with ample hands-on exercises. Participants will also work with real-world ocean acoustics data in small groups in hands-on exercise sessions.

Beyond the workshop, we encourage participants to dive deeper into the physics, math, and signal processing concepts behind each topic. The BOAT team will continue to develop in-depth tutorials on these topics and link them below.

Below are the topics we will cover in the workshop. We will add tutorial recordings and add in-depth materials for self-learning as they become available.

Tip

See BOAT fundamentals for the tutorial materials.

Acoustics

Session	Topics
Sources	Natural and human-made sources Signal types Sound pressure level Transmission beam pattern
Receivers	Sensitivity Receiving beam pattern Sources contributing to soundscape
Propagation	Free space propagation Impacts of the medium: sound speed, attenuation Reflection and transmission Ocean propagation
Scattering	Scattering cross section, target strength Discrete scatterers Surface scattering Volume scattering

Technical primers

Session	Topics
How to read a spec sheet	Source selection Receiver selection System response Measurement environment
Spectral analysis	Fourier transform and spectrum Power spectral density Effects of sampling
Probability distributions	Random variables Common probability distributions
Statistical test and estimation	Statistical hypothesis Statistica test: p-value, testing power Likelihood: likelihood ratio, maximum likelihood Limit theorems: law of large numbers, central limit theorem