Modal wave number spectrum for mesoscale eddies

Abstract

The variations of ocean environmental parameters invariably result in variations of local modal wave numbers of a sound pressure field. The asymptotic Hankel transform with a short sliding window is applied to the complex sound pressure field in the water containing a mesoscales eddy to examine the variation of local modal wave number is such a range-dependent environment. The numerical simulation results show that modal wave number spectra obtained by this method can reflect the location and strength of a mesoscale eddy, therefore it can be used to monitor the strength and spatial scale of ocean mesoscale eddies.