Ocean Variability Acoustic Propagation

Fifteen years ago NATO organised a conference entitled 'Ocean Acoustic Modelling'. Many of its participants were again present at this variability workshop. One such participant. in concluding his 1975 paper, quoted the following from a 1972 literature survey: ' ... history presents a sad lack of communications between acousticians and oceanographers' Have we done any better in the last 15 years? We believe so, but only moderately. There is still a massive underdeveloped potential for acousticians and oceanographers to make significant progress together. Currently, the two camps talk together insufficiently even to avoid simple misun derstandings. such as those in Table 1. Table 1 Ocsanographic and acoustic jargon (from an idea by Pol/ardi Jargon Oceanographic use Acoustic use dbordB decibar (depth in m) decibel (energy level) PE primitive equations parabolic equations convergence zone converging currents converging rays (downwelling water) (high energy density) front thermohaline front wave, ray or time front speed water current speed sound propagation speed 1 The list goes on.

The continents of our planet have already been exploited to a great extent. Therefore man is turning his sight to the vast spaciousness of the ocean whose resources - mineral, biological, energetic, and others - are just beginning to be used. The ocean is being intensively studied. Our notions about the dynam ics of ocean waters and their role in forming the Earth's climate as well as about the structure of the ocean bottom have substantially changed during the last two decades. An outstanding part in this accelerated exploration of the ocean is played by ocean acoustics. Only sound waves can propagate in water over large distances. Practically all kinds of telemetry, communication, location, and re mote sensing of water masses and the ocean bottom use sound waves. Propa gating over thousands of kilometers in the ocean, they bring information on earthquakes, eruptions of volcanoes, and distant storms. Projects using acoustical tomography systems for exploration of the ocean are presently be ing developed. Each of these systems will allow us to determine the three-di mensional structure of water masses in regions as large as millions of square kilometers.

Market: Ocean dynamicists and acousticians. "Useful to scientists or students interested in ocean dynamical modelling, acoustic propagation modelling, and particularly to those interested in the union of these fields (which is likely to be become increasingly important)." Revue de livre With complete chapters contributed by leading authorities, this work offers a comprehensive overview of current combined research in acoustics and oceanography. Following an introduction on ocean variability, acoustic propagation, and coupled models, subsequent chapters present up-to-date coverage of the developing relationship between ocean science and ocean acoustics, including an extensive review of state-of-the-art three-dimensional models.

This Topics volume is devoted to a study of sound propagation in the ocean. The effect of the interior of the ocean on underwater sound is analogous to the effect of a lens on light. The oceanic lens is related, as in light propagation, to the index of refraction of the medium. The latter is giv~n by the ratio of the sound frequency to the speed of sound in water, typi ca lly about 1500 m s -1. It is the vari ation of the sound speed due to changing temperature, density, salinity, and pres sure in the complex ocean environment which creates the lens effect. Many oceanic processes such as currents, tides, eddies (circulating, translating regions of wa ter), and internal waves (the wave-like structure of the oceanic density variabil ity) contri bute in turn to the changes in sound speed'. The net effect of the ocean lens is to trap and guide sound waves in a channel created by the lens. The trapped sound can then propagate thousands of miles in this oceanic waveguide. In addition to the propagation in the interior of the ocean, sound can propagate into and back out of the ocean bottom as well as scatter from the ocean surface. Just as the sound produced by a loudspeaker in a room is affected by the walls of the room, so the ocean boundaries and the material properties below the ocean bottom are essential ingredients in the problem.

A concise guide to the theory and application of numerical methods for predicting ocean acoustic propagation, also providing an introduction to numerical methods, with an overview of those methods presently in use. An in-depth development of the implicit-finite-difference technique is presented together with bench-mark test examples included to demonstrate its application to realistic ocean environments. Other applications include atmospheric acoustics, plasma physics, quantum mechanics, optics and seismology.

This book introduces a comprehensive mathematical formulation of the three-dimensional ocean acoustic propagation problem by means of functional and operator splitting techniques in conjunction with rational function approximations. It presents various numerical solutions of the model equation such as finite difference, alternating direction and preconditioning. The detailed analysis of the concept of 3D, N x 2D and 2D problems is very useful not only mathematically and physically, but also computationally. The inclusion of a complete detailed listing of proven computer codes which have been in use by a number of universities and research organizations worldwide makes this book a valuable reference source. Advanced knowledge of numerical methods, applied mathematics and ocean acoustics is not required to understand this book. It is oriented toward graduate students and research scientists to use for research and application purposes.

As man turns his attention from the overcrowded continents of this planet and explores the spaciousness of the ocean, the applications of ocean acoustics become increasingly numerous and important. This book pro- vides an up-to-date introduction to the theory of sound propagation in the ocean, with much new material having been added throughout the second edition. It includes both ray and wave treatments and considerable attention is paid to stochastic problems such as the scattering of sound at rough surfaces and random inhomogeneties. An introductory chapter that discusses the basic experimental data complements the following theoretical chapters.