Abstract
Oceanic fronts involved by ocean currents led to strong gradients of temperature, density and salinity, which have significant effects on underwater sound propagation. This paper focuses on the impact of the oceanic front on three-dimensional underwater sound propagation. A joint experiment of ocean acoustic and physical oceanography at the western North Pacific fronts is introduced. The measurement data for sound waves passed through the oceanic front is processed. The results are analysed and compared with the numerical simulation. It was found that transmission loss presented some difference when the source was located in the front centre and sound waves propagated towards water mass on opposite sides of the front centre. And when the sound field is excited by the underwater explosion at a depth of 200 m, the effects of the horizontal refraction cannot be neglected. On the other hand, the transmission loss for sound pressure fell sharply and rose rapidly at the side of cold water masses.
Highlights
Mesoscale oceanic eddies and fronts, as complex ocean dynamic phenomenon, are energetic contributors to mixing
Why are acoustic pressure transmission loss for the two sides of the oceanic front so different in the same receiver depth? when the explosion source is located at 200 m depth, whether the three-dimensional simulation results are in better agreement with the experimental data than the two-dimensional simulation results?
The Northwest Pacific oceanic front presented in this paper shows the significant effects of acoustic propagation in 2-D and 3-D models
Summary
Mesoscale oceanic eddies and fronts, as complex ocean dynamic phenomenon, are energetic contributors to mixing. Liu et al [15] made a preliminary summary of sound propagation of acoustic pressure resulted from typical mesoscale phenomena, using the parabolic model FOR3D [16] to simulate the impact of mesoscale eddies and oceanic fronts on the sea surface acoustic channel and converging zone. Scientists have carried out a relatively comprehensive study on the western North Pacific front by comparing of oceanic fronts exists or not and obtained certain conclusions in the aspects of sound pressure transmission loss and time arrival structure, there is a lack of discussion and analysis on the three-dimensional sound field of the front. This paper analyses numerically and experimentally how oceanic fronts affect three-dimensional acoustic propagation in the western North Pacific.
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