Reduced order model approach for imaging with waves

TL;DR

This paper presents a new, computationally efficient imaging method using reduced order models to estimate internal waves, improving resolution and enabling selective focusing in wave-based imaging applications.

Contribution

It introduces a ROM-based approach for wave imaging that enhances resolution and allows for selective focusing, with analysis and numerical validation.

Findings

The ROM-based imaging method achieves comparable or better resolution than traditional methods.

The approach enables selective wave focusing at specific points.

Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Abstract

We introduce a novel, computationally inexpensive approach for imaging with an active array of sensors, which probe an unknown medium with a pulse and measure the resulting waves. The imaging function uses a data driven estimate of the "internal wave" originating from the vicinity of the imaging point and propagating to the sensors through the unknown medium. We explain how this estimate can be obtained using a reduced order model (ROM) for the wave propagation. We analyze the imaging function, connect it to the time reversal process and describe how its resolution depends on the aperture of the array, the bandwidth of the probing pulse and the medium through which the waves propagate. We also show how the internal wave can be used for selective focusing of waves at points in the imaging region. This can be implemented experimentally and can be used for pixel scanning imaging. We assess the performance of the imaging methods with numerical simulations and compare them to the conventional reverse-time migration method and the "backprojection" method introduced recently as an application of the same ROM.