Abstract

Acoustical oceanography as defined by Medwin is concerned with development and use of acoustical techniques to measure and understand parameters and processes of the sea. The book of the same name, by Clay and Medwin, was used in a graduate course at MIT for years and educated a great many young acousticians about sound in the ocean including the effects of its surface. Stressed by the turbulent winds above it, the ocean surface can be tweaked to tiny patches of cats paws or whipped into a frenzy of raging, mountainous seas. [Clay and Medwin, ‘‘Acoustical Oceanography’’ (Wiley, New York, 1977) p. 16]. The text developed the fundamentals of ocean acoustic propagation including the normal mode solution in a waveguide. With the background provided by this text, we developed a technique for estimating the sea surface frequency-direction spectra using the perturbations in modal travel time. The forward problem of computing the acoustic travel time perturbation spectra given the surface wave spectrum was solved to first order. The recent Shallow Water 06 experiment experienced two tropical storms (Ernesto and Florence) and mode travel time perturbations were measured between a number of sources and receivers and are compared to theory. [Work supported by ONR.]

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