The objective of this project is to develop and implement a comprehensive synthetic software tool that simulates underwater three-dimensional electromagnetic (3DEM) and magnetometer survey data for advanced geophysical classification (AGC) applications. This project will leverage existing underwater munition response site data from previous SERDP & ESTCP projects, systematically analyzing noise characteristics across diverse marine environments including nearshore surf zones, protected bays, and deep-water regimes. Through rigorous analysis of existing datasets, this project will characterize how environmental variables—including salinity gradients, bathymetry, sea state conditions, currents, sediment types, clutter interference, and sensor-seawater interactions—affect signal quality and classification performance. This analysis will inform the development of a physics-based synthetic data generation engine that accurately models these environmental effects alongside positional uncertainties and temporal variations.

The primary goal for this project is to provide a software tool that will enable site managers and contractors to accurately predict the effectiveness of underwater AGC for specific site conditions, system deployment modes, clearance depths, and munition types. Existing physics-based simulation engines and 3DEM datasets will be utilized to produce data-informed synthetic data specific to unexploded ordnance sites, accurately mirroring real-world conditions. By leveraging pre-existing underwater datasets, the project team will systematically characterize noise and use the noise as inputs into the synthetic data generation. Using well known and well described modeling frameworks, synthetic AGC data will be generated and emplace synthetic seeds into the data such that site specific metrics that describe the site can be developed. Furthermore, the ability to generate a vertical conceptual site model that accurately predicts detection and classification depths for known targets will be demonstrated.

The expected benefits from this project include a comprehensive synthetic site modeling tool that will fundamentally transform how stakeholders approach underwater munitions response operations. By creating virtual testbeds that accurately represent diverse underwater environments using real-world data and underwater models from previous SERDP & ESTCP projects, this software will enable stakeholders to generate physics-based synthetic AGC data across multiple underwater variables including salinity gradients, bathymetry variations, sea state conditions, sediment types, and clutter interference. This capability will allow for accurate prediction of detection depths, algorithm testing, classification accuracies, and signal-to-noise ratios before deployment, eliminating the current uncertainty that plagues underwater survey planning and enabling stakeholders to identify optimal survey configurations, sensor modalities, and deployment strategies without costly field testing. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2027)