Observations of Sea-Surface Waves During the 2013 Target and Reverberation Experiment (TREX13) and Relation to Midfrequency Sonar

Abstract

As part of the 2013 Target and REverberation eXperiment (TREX13), which took place off the coast of Panama City, FL, USA, directional wave measurements were made using two directional wave buoys separated in range by 5 km. The purpose of these measurements was to provide environmental support for the interpretation of reverberation and other active sonar experiments that were part of TREX13. During the measurement period between April 22 and May 17, 2013 exclusive of a period of nondeployment May 2–6, 2013, the root-mean-square (rms) wave height $H$ varied over the range 0.03–0.33 m, holding a median value of 0.11 m; the wind speed varied from ${\sim} $ 1 to 10 m/s with a median value of 4.7 m/s, and the rms wave slope averaged over all directions varied from 0.01 to 0.10 with median value of 0.05. These parameters are placed in the context of midfrequency sonar propagation and reverberation prediction. One buoy operated the entire period, with the second buoy operating simultaneously over a four-day overlap period, during which there was excellent agreement between $H$ and wave slope in two orthogonal directions, a finding relevant to describing the sea surface as spatially invariant, or homogeneous, for purposes of sonar modeling. The analysis of energy-weighted mean direction illustrates how the wave field was generally composed of a mixture of swell and wind-generated waves; in cases of purely wind-generated waves the effect of a limited fetch was also shown.