The noise's statistical characteristics are very important for signal detection.In this paper,the ambient noise statistical characteristics are investigated by using the recorded noise data in sea trials first,and the results show that the generalized Gaussian distribution is a suitable model for the ambient noise modeling.Thereafter,the optimal detector based on maximum likelihood ratio can be deduced,and the asymptotic detector is also derived under weak signal assumption.The detector's performance is verified by using numerical simulation,and the results showthat the optimal and asymptotic detectors outperform the conventional correlation-integration system due to accuracy modeling of ambient noise.