High Resolution Backscattering Acoustic Tomography Method Based on Reverse Time Migration for Arbitrary Wideband Sounding Signal

Backscattered wave acoustic tomography using wideband probing signals makes it possible to obtain three-dimensional (3D) images of scattering inhomogeneities. Signal processing based on the reverse time migration (RTM) method allows one to take into account the influence of background refractive obstacles of the medium to minimize distortions of reconstructed tomographic images. We propose a noniterative method of acoustic tomography in an immersion medium based on RTM approach supplemented with linear signal preprocessing to enhance resolution of reconstructing tomography images. The visualization of scattering objects is based on wave inversion from the measurement area considering the probing wave field specially distorted to perform regularized back convolution. The applicability of the proposed method for visualizing scattering objects in water is shown analytically, numerically and experimentally. The proposed method is resistant to noise according to regularization. The results obtained show the agreement between the numerical and analytical solution. Using the example of sounding with linear frequency modulation signals, it is demonstrated that the proposed method allows increasing the resolution of tomographic images in comparison with conventional RTM. The novelty of the proposed method is the preliminary filtration of the forward propagation wave in the course of solving the inverse problem. This approach improves the resolution of tomographic images and allows considering the influence of obstacles.