In this paper, a study is initiated to observe the interaction effect of th
e sound signal with three different sediment bottoms in the shelf area betw
een Cochin and Mangalore in the western continental shelf of India. An echo
signal acquisition system has been designed and interfaced with the 12 kHz
echosounder installed onboard ORV Sager Kanya. The reflection coefficients
including attenuation at the seawater/bottom interface are computed in the
three different sediment areas based on the sediment mean grain size. The
experimental coherent reflection coefficients are calculated using the atte
nuation corrected reflection coefficients and the normalized cross-correlat
ion between successive backscatter echo signal waveforms in those areas. Fu
rther, analyses conducted by determining the echo peak Probability Density
Function (PDF) and matching them with the experimental echo peak histograms
provide root mean square (rms) roughness amplitude in the three different
survey areas. The rms roughness values are used to compute the coherent ref
lection coefficients. An attempt to establish concurrence between the coher
ent reflection coefficients based upon the rms roughness amplitude and the
experimental coherent reflection coefficients using the backscatter echo si
gnals, reveals the importance of seawater/bottom interface roughness in the
coarse grained sediment bottoms like sand and silty sand. The existence of
microtopographic features are responsible for the seawater/bottom interfac
e roughness. However, in the fine grained sediment area, the bottom does no
t contain any such feature. (C) 1999 Academic Press.