Method of acoustic sweep monitoring of oceanic inhomogeneities (Review)

Abstract

Theoretical grounds of the new method of monitoring of the temporal variability of oceanic inhomogeneities, which uses the data on frequency shifts of interference maxima of the sound field, were described. The method is free of limitations on both the resolution of signals coming in individual modes (rays) and the adiabatic approximation underlying the conventional methods of inhomogeneity reconstruction. The monitoring sensitivity was estimated, which allows us to estimate minimum detectable changes in the speed of sound by measurement data on frequency shifts of local maxima. Experimental data on shifts of the frequency spectrum of a broadband low-frequency signal on a stationary path in a shallow sea were presented. On their basis, the possibility of applying this method to diagnose tidal variations was shown. Within a numerical simulation, model reconstruction of the frequency spectrum of background internal waves was considered on the basis of the data on measurements of the spectrum of frequency shifts of the interference maximum. The results of the spectrum reconstruction with and without focusing of the conjugate wave field are presented. The problems of monitoring stability and efficiency with respect to the interference pattern formed by various groups of modes were discussed.