Bottom reverberation in the oceans

Abstract

Bottom reverberation generally follows Lambert's law for grazing angles less than 50° [P. B. Schmidt, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 50, 326–331 (1971)] with 10 log μ between −24 to −34 dB with an average near −28 dB obtained for 530‐ and 1030‐Hz data [K. V. Mackenzie, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 33, 1498–1504 (1961)]. For steeper angles, scattering varies as exp cot2φ, where φ is the grazing angles [Y. Y. Jitkovskiy and L. A. Volovova, E67, 5th Int. Acoust. Congr. (1965)]. Reflection loss at normal incidence follows Rayleigh. A practical equation for a deep‐ocean bottom reverberation model is presented and compared with available data.