Reverberation suppression using non-negative matrix factorization to detect low-Doppler target with continuous wave active sonar

In active sonar systems, the detection of echo from targets can deteriorate due to reverberation. Detection becomes more difficult if targets have low-Doppler frequency and are located near the reverberation band, especially in an environment with low signal-to-reverberation ratio. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the reverberation suppression of continuous wave signals using non-negative matrix factorization. To extract the target echo signal mixed with reverberations, the bases for the target echo and the reverberation are independently defined, and different constraints are applied for their corresponding estimation. We also derive constraints on temporal continuity and temporal length to estimate bases for the target echo. Experiments using simulated reverberations are performed to evaluate the proposed algorithm, and the results show an enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio by 6–15 dB, as well as in the detection probability at several signal-to-reverberation ratios. Moreover, an experiment is conducted using reverberation measured from an ocean, and the results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively suppress reverberation and enhance detection performance in practical settings.