Estimating seabed properties with a residual convolutional network

Deep learning can assist in characterizing seabeds using sources of opportunity such as shipping noise. While previous work focused on seabed classification, this study uses a residual convolutional neural network to find individual seabed properties. The training data were labeled with sound speed, density, attenuation, and thickness of the layer values of the top sediment layer. A comparison was made between predictive capabilities of ResNet-18 networks when trained to learn a single parameter and those trained to simultaneously learn multiple parameters. For stiff parameters—those with high information content in the data—learning an individual parameter performed better. These single parameter predictions are fundamentally different from a geoacoustic inversion for one parameter. In geoacoustic inversion, all other parameters are held at a fixed value. In deep learning, variability in all other parameters is contained in the training data, but the network focuses on features in the data related to a single property. The trained networks are applied to ship noise measured during the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation’s REU program.]