The spatial structure of the acoustic signal field near the ocean bottom was investigated experimentally. A source near the ocean surface projected a cw tone as it moved along a radial path from a range of 40 km to within 2 km of a near-bottom vertical array of receiving hydrophones in a 2643 m deep ocean. The signal level at each hydrophone and the signal phase difference between consecutive pairs of phones were measured as a function of source-receiver range. A technique for modelling the signal field spatial structure was developed that demonstrated those physical mechanisms that influence the signal field. It was found that, for short ranges, signal phase difference was dominated by a few eigenrays and that coherent interference among these rays was an important factor in describing certain aspects of the signal field. An application to receiving array beamforming was made in which it was shown that inhomogeneities in the spatial structure of the signal field led to degradation of array signal gain when standard delay-and-sum beamforming was done.
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