A survey of models for the prediction of ambient ocean noise: Circa 1995

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The state of the art of model development for application to computer studies of undersea search systems utilizing acoustics is surveyed in this document. Due to the demands for surveillance of submarines operating in ocean basins, the development of noise models for application in deep oceans is fairly advanced and somewhat generic. This is due to the deep sound channel, discovered during World War II, which when present allows for long-range sound propagation with little or no interaction with the bottom. Exceptions to this channel, also well understood, are found in both the high latitudes where the sound is upward refracting and in tropical ocean areas with downward refracting sound transmission. The controlling parameter is the sound speed as a function of depth within the ocean, the sound speed profile. When independent of range, this profile may be converted to a noise-versus-depth profile with well-validated consequences for deep-ocean ambient noise. When considering ocean areas of shallow water, the littoral regions, the idea of a genenic ocean channel advisedly is abandoned. The locally unique nature of both the noise production mechanisms and of the channel carrying the sound, obviates the generic treatment. Nevertheless, idealizations of this case exist and promote the understanding if not the exact predictability of the statistics of shallow water ambient noise. Some examples of these models are given in this document.