Abstract
Palmer, et al. (Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 15, No. 6, 1988, 596–572) have shown that acoustic ray paths in a weakly range‐dependent deterministic ocean model exhibit chaotic behavior. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether ray paths in a realistic ocean‐acoustic problem are chaotic. To achieve this goal, measured sound speed data and Munk, et al.’s horizontal ray equations, which take into account earth’s curvature and flattening, are used to study sound propagation from Heard Island to Ascension Island. Along with the integration of the ray equations, Lyapunov exponents are calculated to identify chaos. Numerical results show that all the horizontal ray paths we construct were chaotic. Predictability limitations due to the chaos are discussed.
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