Imaging extended reflectors in a terminating waveguide

Abstract

We consider the problem of imaging extended reflectors in terminating waveguides. We form the image by back-propagating the array response matrix projected on the waveguide's non-evanescent modes. The projection is adequately defined for any array aperture size covering fully or partially the waveguide's vertical cross-section. We perform a resolution analysis of the imaging method and show that the resolution is determined by the central frequency while the image's signal-to-noise ratio improves as the bandwidth increases. The robustness of the imaging method is assessed with fully non-linear scattering data in terminating waveguides with complex geometries.