The integrated ocean dynamics and acoustics project

Abstract

The goal of timely and accurate acoustics modeling in the ocean depends on accurate environmental input information. Acoustic propagation modeling has improved to the point of possibly being ahead of ocean dynamical modeling from the standpoint that some significant ocean features having strong acoustic effects are not faithfully reproduced in many models, particularly data-driven ocean models. This in part stems from the fact that ocean models have developed with other goals in mind, but computational limitations also play a role. The Integrated Ocean Dynamics and Acoustics (IODA) MURI project has as its goals improving ocean models, and also making continued improvements to acoustic models, for the purpose of advancing ocean acoustic modeling and prediction capabilities. Two major focuses are improved internal tide forecasting and improved nonlinear internal wave forecasting, which require pushing the state of the art in data-constrained mesoscale feature modeling as well as developing specialized high-...