Quantitative ocean characterisation: Acoustically analogous environments

Abstract

Characterisation of the oceanic environment is of interest to many different scientific and engineering disciplines, including geologists, fisheries managers, marine mammal biologists, ocean resource managers, conservationists and ocean acousticians. Quantitative environmental characterisation requires a robust and efficient methodology to evaluate vast amounts of spatiotemporal environmental data. Presented here is such a methodology – flexible and robust enough to be used in multiple applications.The case presented is the determination of acoustically analogous environments in the ocean. A key element of this work is the construction of a set of acoustically relevant parameters which characterise acoustical properties of the water column, based on the sound speed profile. Results of this methodology demonstrate that this set of acoustically significant parameters accurately represent the acoustic propagation characteristics of the ocean environment.