The characteristic acoustic impedance is a favorable observation variable for geoacoustic inversion (GI) owing to its higher sensitivity than that of pressure or particle velocity. However, no theoretical explanations have been provided for it. As an attempt to understand the underlying physical mechanism, interpretations based on the normal mode theory are conducted in this study. Moreover, synthetic Bayesian geoacoustic inversion with two recording scenarios of a vertical line array and single receiver are also performed, both of which proved that the impedance can provide improved estimation.
