Estimating sea-water volume attenuation coefficients from mid-frequency, deep-water experiments in the Atlantic and Pacific

Abstract

A collection of mid-frequency deep-water experiments were performed off the U.S. Pacific coast and in the northeastern Atlantic using a short vertical array cut for 7.5 kHz. Previously presented analysis of a Pacific experiments have shown agreement between experimental estimates of attenuation coefficients to the decades old attenuation models. We present the comparison of experimental attenuation coefficient estimates from additional Pacific and Atlantic data and discuss the methodology for inverting for depth-dependent ocean properties using acoustic amplitude measurements. The data and methodology are also used to explore the feasibility of ocean acoustic attenuation tomography for determining the individual chemical attenuation coefficient terms strictly from in situ measurements.