Patent ID: 8228760

Claim:
A method for airborne laser-acoustic detection of an underwater object in a body of water, comprising: placing a plurality of acoustic sensors into the body of water, the plurality of acoustic sensors comprising an array of acoustic sensors arranged in a pattern configured to provide a predetermined area of coverage in the body of water, a location of each of the acoustic sensors being known, each of the acoustic sensors being configured to receive and transmit data to a processor programmed with appropriate software; firing, from a laser source, a plurality of laser pulses under the surface of the body of water in a pattern associated with the known locations of the acoustic sensors, each of the laser pulses being configured to generate a corresponding laser-acoustic pulse source as a result of ionization of a volume of the water caused by compression of the laser pulse in the volume of water, wherein the laser pulse is compressed in the water through any combination of: 1) lens focusing, 2) optical group velocity dispersion induced longitudinal compression, and 3) transverse self-focusing via a nonlinear optical Kerr effect, each laser-acoustic pulse source having a predetermined desired shape at a predetermined arbitrary desired underwater location, the underwater laser-acoustic pulse sources generating a corresponding plurality of underwater acoustic pulses traveling through the water; transmitting data of a location of each of the laser-acoustic pulse sources to the processor; receiving the acoustic pulses at the acoustic sensors, a received acoustic pulse being received in at least one of a direct path and a scattered path, the scattered path being associated with an underwater object, each of the received acoustic pulses having an acoustic signature associated therewith; recording data of the acoustic signatures of the received acoustic pulses; transmitting the recorded data to the processor; and at the processor, transforming the data of the acoustic signatures, together with data of the known locations of the acoustic sensors and the data of the locations of the laser-acoustic pulse sources, into data of a location of the underwater object.