Improvement of an Acoustic Sounder Device Used to Measure Atmospheric Turbulence

摘要

Optical turbulence plays an important role in the propagation of electromagnetic waves through the atmosphere because it broadens and distorts the optical beam. A variety of optical, thermal, and acoustic instruments are used to detect the atmospheric turbulence and an acoustic echosounder has proven to be a valuable tool to probe the fine dynamic structure of atmospheric turbulence within first hundred meters above the surface. The first planar acoustic echosounder constructed at the Naval Postgraduate School was by Weingartner and Wroblewski, under Walters supervision. Moxcey later modified this design by reducing the number of drivers from 25 to 19 and placing the drivers closer together into a hexagonal, close-packed array. This thesis explored the potential sources of the transducer ringing and implemented solutions to the problem. Additionally, we also improved the receiving sensitivity of the echosounder and lowered the electronics noise when receiving. Finally, we applied these techniques to another array assembled with new drivers to improve its performance compared to the previous echosounder array, while measuring and quantifying the level of improvement achieved.