Ultrasound observation apparatus according to the present invention includes: a frequency analysis section that calculates a plurality of frequency spectra in accordance with the received depth and receiving direction of the ultrasonic signal by analyzing the frequency of the ultrasonic signals, characterized in a plurality of frequency spectrum the amount was calculated, respectively, effect on the feature amount of each frequency spectrum with each of the plurality of attenuation factor candidate values to provide different damping characteristics from each other as the attenuation characteristic when ultrasound propagates through the observation target of the ultrasonic attenuation calculating a correction characteristic amount of each frequency spectrum for each attenuation ratio candidate value by performing attenuation correction to eliminate, the optimal attenuation factor for observation from among the plurality of attenuation factor candidate value calculation result based on comprising the optimal damping factor setting section that sets, the attenuation factor image data generation unit that generates an attenuation factor image data for displaying information about the optimum damping factor, a.本発明にかかる超音波観測装置は、超音波信号の周波数を解析することによって超音波信号の受信深度および受信方向に応じた複数の周波数スペクトルを算出する周波数解析部と、複数の周波数スペクトルの特徴量をそれぞれ算出し、超音波が観測対象を伝播する際の減衰特性として互いに異なる減衰特性を与える複数の減衰率候補値の各々を用いて各周波数スペクトルの特徴量に対し超音波の減衰の影響を排除する減衰補正を施すことによって減衰率候補値ごとの各周波数スペクトルの補正特徴量を算出し、この算出結果をもとに複数の減衰率候補値の中から観測対象に最適な減衰率を設定する最適減衰率設定部と、最適な減衰率に関する情報を表示する減衰率画像データを生成する減衰率画像データ生成部と、を備える。
