Abstract
A theoretical analysis of the sound field in the Arctic Ocean due to a crack occurring in the ice sheet is given. Particular attention is paid to the contribution of that field to Arctic Ocean ambient noise. The crack is modeled by an approximate ‘‘equivalent source,’’ and the example chosen represents a small failure of the ice sheet under tension. It is shown that if the ice sheet were completely continuous, only a very small fraction of the energy released by the crack could be trapped as sound in the surface half-channel of the ocean, where it would contribute to the ambient noise. This suggests that scattering of energetic elastic waves in the ice by natural inhomogeneities may be an important additional mechanism by which acoustic energy can leak into the surface channel. The analysis is relevant to acoustic emission from any unbounded, elastic plate in contact with two, possibly different, fluid half-spaces.
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