ONR arctic acoustics 1978—1998

Abstract

The Arctic Program Office of the Office of Naval Research ten Arctic field programs from 1978–1994 under the visionary leadership of program managers Dr. G. Leonard Johnson and Dr. Tom Curtin. During this period, over ten ice camps in both the western Arctic (Beaufort Sea) and the eastern Arctic (Nansen and Pole Abyssal Plains were manned and four ice breakers served as platforms in the marginal ice zone (Fram Straits). Since the cost of the support logistics for Arctic field programs is so very high, these experiments were multidisciplinary and almost all had an acoustic component. Some of the highlights were transoceanic reverberation, seismic reflection and refraction, random channels for time and Doppler spreading, target detection, matched field processing,ocean acoustic tomography, seismicity, and ambient noise were among the many topics examined. There were also robust efforts advancing data acquisition. Large, two dimensional horizontal arrays with both cabled and “WIFI” telemetry, large vertical arrays, precision sensor navigation, and sophisticated remote instrumentation buoys were deployed. With the end of the “Cold War” the last field program was in 1994 and the ONR Arctic program eventually was disestablished. Now, the retreat Arctic ice cover and Arctic Ocean warming has reinvigorated ONR's interest in the Arctic and after two decades ONR field programs are planned for the near future.