Open-ocean observations have shown the frequent occurrence of bubbles organized into vertical, plume-like structures. A review of recent inverted echo-sounder observation of bubble plume densities and depth scales is presented. Using standard high-frequency (HF) models for bubble scattering and absorption, along with recent acoustic resonator measurements of bubble size-spectra, simple sonar performance models can be developed. These models show that bubble plume structures induce both significant spatial variations in the reverberation level and path-integrated extinction loss anomalies relative to predictions from uniform bubble layer models. Results are presented modelling the impacts of bubble plume structures on the performance of a near-horizontally oriented HF sonar close to the ocean surface.
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