In order to improve the localization accuracy of the distributed passive location system in the ocean acoustic field,a sensor configuration method is proposed based on an adaptive genetic algorithm.First,the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of location error is deduced based on the time of arrival (TOA) localization algorithm in the uniform field and the ocean acoustic field.Then,the ocean acoustic field is simulated by the BELLHOP model.The transfer function between the arbitrary target and the received signal of any sensor can be attained via this model.Meanwhile,the concept of the equivalent acoustic velocity is derived.When the target is uniformly distributed in the ocean acoustic field,the adaptive genetic algorithm is adopted to obtain the optimal sensor configuration by minimizing the average CRLB.Simulation results show that the optimal sensor configuration can effectively reduce the localization error.Besides,the nonlinear decreasing trend of localization error with the increasing number of sensors is given,which provides the theoretical guidance for engineering applications.