On acoustic transmission in ocean-surface waveguides (Q3977948)

Long range sound propagation in the ocean is usually calculated by employing a ray tracing technique or by refinements of that technique such as the parabolic equation approximation or the Gaussian beam method. In all these cases extensive numerical calculations are necessary. In the paper reviewed here an analytical approach is used. It makes use of the fact that for the so-called inverse square profile an explicit expression for the pressure field can be given. In this profile the sound speed \(c(z)\) is only a function of the depth \(z\) and is given by \(1/c^ 2(z)=(1/c^ 2_ \infty)(1+z^ 2_ 1/z^ 2)\). Here \(c_ \infty\) is the sound speed for \(z\to\infty\), \(z_ 1\) is a free parameter that can be adjusted to existing data; it may be imaginary to allow curvature in both directions. The plane \(z=0\) need not be the water surface. This gives another adjustable parameter. The exact solution of the acoustic wave equation for such a profile is given in the paper. It consists of an integral representation involving Hankel functions of order \(\mu\), where \(\mu\) can be a real or imaginary number. This solution is thoroughly discussed showing that the poles determine the normal modes and a branch line integral determines the continuous components; furthermore some limiting cases and approximate expressions are given. The results are also applied to the long range sound propagation in the arctic ocean in the frequency range 4-200 Hz and to the sound field in the upper layer of the sea where small air bubbles have a strong influence on the sound speed. Good correlation with experimental data was found.