Fifteen Years of Long Range Acoustics in the Pacific Ocean

摘要

Because sound is the only form of energy that propagates well in the ocean it is used in undersea systems for communication, navigation, imaging, fixing and ranging (sonar), and to measure physical properties of the ocean itself such as temperature and currents. Optimal performance of these systems depends on understanding and accounting for the detailed characteristics of ocean acoustic propagation. More than a century of study has revealed the essential features of how sound propagates in an idealized ocean and many of its characteristics in a more realistic ocean that varies in space and time, has rough boundaries and is dominated by currents and eddies and internal waves, but many important outstanding problems remain. In many cases theoretical predictions do not agree with observations. In others, the theory itself is either undeveloped, or in dispute.