An example method for automatically characterizing an echo contained in an ultrasonic signal generated with an ultrasonic transducer can include receiving data corresponding to the ultrasonic signal, calculating an energy ratio of the ultrasonic signal and localizing the echo using the energy ratio. The method can include windowing a portion of the ultrasonic signal around the localized echo and calculating a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and a Hilbert envelop of the windowed portion. The method can include estimating M echo parameters from the FFT and the Hilbert envelope of the windowed portion, where each of the M parameter vectors includes a plurality of echo parameters, calculating M parametric echo models based on each of the M echo parameter vectors and iteratively minimizing a difference between the windowed portion of the ultrasonic signal and a sum of the M parametric echo models.