Acoustic reflection coefficients are reported for water-saturated granular media at frequencies from 1.2 to 2.0 MHz using a narrow-beam broadband transducer in a monostatic geometry at near-normal incidence. Natural sand and glass beads with median grain diameters ranging from 0.22 to 0.40 mm were used. For each granular medium, bed elevation and root-mean-square roughness were measured using side-on photographs of the sediment-water interface. The probability density distributions of the bed elevations are Gaussian. The roughness parameter is close to 1, indicating that the reflected pressure field is mainly due to coherent scattering. The probability distribution of the observed reflection coefficients is nearly Gaussian, consistent with the predictions from a coherent single-scattering model. The horizontal decorrelation length of the observed reflection coefficients is ∼4 mm, with no consistent dependence on either frequency or grain size, and approximately equal to 20% of the transducer diameter. This behaviour, which is reproduced by the single-scattering model, is due to speckle. The size/frequency-dependence of the reflection coefficients are well described by Eckart's [(1953). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 25(3), 566-570] prediction for a rough surface with Gaussian-distributed surface elevations. Comparisons are made to previously reported reflection coefficient measurements.
