Abstract: Impulsive noise in underwater acoustic signal processing is introduces.An introduce to a statistical model is given based on a class of symmetric α-stable(SαS) distributions which is well suited for modeling noise that are impulsive in nature.An overview of the class of α-stable distributions and α-stable distribution parameter estimation is presented.This distribution is used to model measured impulsive noise.It is demonstrated that the SαS distribution with heavier tails than the Gaussian distribution gives a much better approximation to underwater impulsive noise.