Internal tides and deep diel fades in acoustic intensity.

A mechanism is presented by which the observed acoustic intensity is made to vary due to changes in the acoustic path that are caused by internal-tide vertical fluid displacements. The position in range and depth of large-scale caustic structure is determined by the background sound-speed profile. Internal tides cause a deformation of the background profile, changing the positions of the caustic structures-which can introduce intensity changes at a distant receiver. Gradual fades in the acoustic intensity occurring over timescales similar to those of the tides were measured during a low-frequency (284-Hz) acoustic scattering experiment in the Philippine Sea in 2009 [White et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134(4), 3347-3358 (2013)]. Parabolic equation and Hamiltonian ray-tracing calculations of acoustic propagation through a plane-wave internal tide environmental model employing sound-speed profiles taken during the experiment indicate that internal tides could cause significant gradual changes in the received intensity. Furthermore, the calculations demonstrate how large-scale perturbations to the index of refraction can result in variation in the received intensity.

Reverberation clutter induced by nonlinear internal waves in shallow water.

Clutter is related to false alarms for active sonar. It is demonstrated that, in shallow water, target-like clutter in reverberation signals can be caused by nonlinear internal waves. A nonlinear internal wave is modeled using measured stratification on the New Jersey shelf. Reverberation in the presence of the internal wave is modeled numerically. Calculations show that acoustic energy propagating near a sound speed minimum is deflected as a high intensity, higher angle beam into the bottom, where it is backscattered along the reciprocal path. The interaction of sound with the internal wave is isolated in space, hence resulting in a target-like clutter, which is found to be greater than 10 dB above the mean reverberation level.

Mid-frequency acoustic propagation in shallow water on the New Jersey shelf: mean intensity.

Mid-frequency (1-10 kHz) sound propagation was measured at ranges 1-9 km in shallow water in order to investigate intensity statistics. Warm water near the bottom results in a sound speed minimum. Environmental measurements include sediment sound speed and water sound speed and density from a towed conductivity-temperature-depth chain. Ambient internal waves contribute to acoustic fluctuations. A simple model involving modes with random phases predicts the mean transmission loss to within a few dB. Quantitative ray theory fails due to near axial focusing. Fluctuations of the intensity field are dominated by water column variability.

Mid-frequency acoustic propagation in shallow water on the New Jersey shelf. II. Intensity fluctuation.

The scintillation index and the intensity cumulative distribution function of mid-frequency (2-10 kHz) sound propagation are presented at ranges of 1-9 km in a shallow water channel. The fluctuations are due to water column sound speed variability. It is found that intensity is only correlated over a narrow frequency band (50-200 Hz) and the bandwidth is independent of center frequency and range. Furthermore, the intensity probability distribution peaks at zero for all frequencies, and follows an exponential distribution at small values.

Validity of the Markov approximation in ocean acoustics.

Moment equations and path integrals for wave propagation in random media have been applied to many ocean acoustics problems. Both these techniques make use of the Markov approximation. The expansion parameter, which must be less than one for the Markov approximation to be valid, is the subject of this paper. There is a standard parameter (the Kubo number) which various authors have shown to be sufficient. Fourth moment equations have been successfully used to predict the experimentally measured frequency spectrum of intensity in the mid-ocean acoustic transmission experiment (MATE). Yet, in spite of this success, the Kubo number is greater than 1 for the measured index of refraction variability for MATE, arriving at a contradiction. Here, that contradiction is resolved by showing that the Kubo parameter is far too pessimistic for the ocean case. Using the methodology of van Kampen, another parameter is found which appears to be both necessary and sufficient, and is much smaller than the Kubo number when phase fluctuations are dominated by large scales in the medium. This parameter is shown to be small for the experimental regime of MATE, justifying the applications of the moment equations to that experiment.