Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Lawrence J. Ziomek, Ziaoping Yun. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Steven E. Pilnick, Patricia A. Jacobs, Donald P. Gaver. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Steven E. Pilnick, Donald P. Gaver. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Alan R. Washburn, Samuel E. Buttrey. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Peter C. Chu. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-54). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-54). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2002. / "June 2002." Thesis advisor(s): Alan R. Washburn. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39). Also available online.

CIVINS / The changing state of warfare has driven the US Navy's area of operations closer to shore into littoral coastal waters. Mine Warfare has been proven as an extremely effective means of battlespace control in these waters. Mines can be inexpensively mass produced and rapidly deployed over large areas. The most common type of mine in use is the bottom placed mine, an object with simple geometry that sits on the seafloor. These mines often exhibit scour induced burial below the seafloor, making detection through traditional mine hunting methods difficult or impossible, while the mines themselves remain lethal. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has developed a computer model that predicts the extent of mine burial to aid mine hunting and mine clearing operations. Investigations under ONR's Mine Burial Program are presently being conducted to calibrate and validate this model. This thesis uses data from the deployment of an acoustically instrumented model mine near the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory in part of a larger, 16 total object investigation. A 2-axis pencil beam sonar was deployed concurrently with the mine to obtain microbathymetric measurements of the scour pit development and the progression of mine burial. Data correction techniques to correct for beam pattern induced bathymetry errors and a transformed coordinate system are detailed within. An analysis of scour pit dimensions includes scour depth, area, and volume as well as a look into percent burial by depth as a characteristic measurement important for operational mine hunting. The progression of mine burial is related to the wave climate, unsteady flow hydrodynamic forcing, and bed-load transport. The analysis examines the relative roles of these mechanisms in the scour-infill-bury process.

Simulation is used to study the effectiveness of mine avoidance sonar (MAS) use on safe minefield transit by a ship. A MAS is able to detect mine-like objects but currently cannot classify the detected object as a mine or a non-mine mine-like bottom object (nombo). The tactic is to avoid all detected objects. The minefield is represented by a finite grid of fixed width and length. The representation of ship maneuvering in the simulation is similar to that of a wall tracing algorithm for a computer mouse going through a maze. The simulation results indicate that the use of the mine avoidance sonars can increase the probability of successful transit. The probability of successful transit increases as the probability of detection increases for minefield object densities less than 50% of the field. However, the probability of successful transit is sensitive to the mine and NOMBO (NOn-mine Mine-like Bottom Object) density. The probability of successful transit can be increased if the density of mine-like objects is decreased. Some suggestions on mine avoidance tactics are made from the results obtained to show the limitations and effectiveness of the MAS with regards to the open waters, narrow channels, ports and harbors.