Prof Nicholas Pace
Profile
My research is within the field of acoustics, mainly underwater applications. My particular expertise is the interaction of high frequency acoustics with the seabed, mainly in the context of mine countermeasures. This includes the scatter from targets both on and in the seabed so that the statistics of target detection in a reverberation background can be predicted. Although the seabed can be treated as having only spatial variability, the properties of the water column fluctuate in both time and space on all scales. Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), used for optimum angular resolution for mine detection/classification applications, is particularly sensitive to medium fluctuations. Current work is directed to demonstration of sea-bed target detections using SAS mounted on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In recent times I have concentrated on
- seabed classification for mine burial prediction
- statistical properties of seabed reverberation for mine detection studies
- the acoustic detection of mines buried in the seabed
- the fluctuations in acoustic transmission due to environmental effects
- synthetic aperture sonar on autonomous underwater vehicles
Publications
Blondel, P. and Pace, N. G., 2009. Bistatic Sonars: Sea Trials, Laboratory Experiments and Future Surveys. Archives of Acoustics, 34 (1), pp. 95-109.
