Theory of sound propagation in the ocean: A tribute to L. M. Brekhovskikh

Abstract

This presentation will be an account (from a personal perspective) of the impact L. M. Brekhovskikh’s first (and now classic) book on Waves in Layered Media from 1960 has had on the development of modern-day numerical models for solving ocean acoustic problems. A whole generation of acoustic modelers, starting in the early 1970s, devoted a career to developing computer codes that would predict sound propagation through a realistic ocean environment, including refraction, scattering, and diffraction of sound within the water column itself, as well as reflection and scattering at ocean boundaries (sea surface and seabed). Not everybody realized that much of the underlying theory had been developed years before and presented in the monograph by Brekhovskikh in 1960 (English edition). In fact, much of the numerical work undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s was merely an automation—through the use of a computer—of solution procedures already outlined by Brekhovskikh. Few, if any, have contributed more to establishing a sound theoretical foundation for ocean acoustics, and L. M. Brekhovskikh’s influence on the field can hardly be overestimated.