Abstract: A plurality of hydrophone output signals representative of an ocean bottom re simulated to test a receiver of the sonar sounding system. The phase shift of the output of each hydrophone at each snapshot is determined along with the amplitude. This information is stored for use during simulation. During the simulation, a carrier signal, along with the recorded phase shift amplitude information, are applied to a phase shifter to phase shift the carrier signal in accordance with the recorded phase shift data for each channel and attenuate the phase shifted signal. The phase shifted and attenuated output is applied to a channel of a receiver of the sonar sounding system. Two phase shift words representative of the phase shift of the hydrophone can modulate a master and a delayed master respectively to provide better results. The phase shift data may be selectively applied to the receiver of the sonar sounding system to test the receiver at a plurality of different resolutions.