Accession Number:

ADA331375

Title:

Oceanology International '96', Conference Proceedings, Volume 1, Held in Brighton, United Kingdom, on 5-8 March 1996. Environmental Factors Affecting the Acoustic Resonant Frequency Due to Internal Solitons.

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

NAVAL RESEARCH LAB STENNIS SPACE CENTER MS SHALLOW WATER COASTAL ACOUSTICS SECTION

Personal Author(s):

• Broadhead, Michael K.
• Field, Robert L.

Report Date:

1996-03-01

Pagination or Media Count:

10.0

Abstract:

Nonlinear shallow water internal waves can enhance the bottom interaction of underwater sound. For a lossy ocean bottom, this has the effect of an overall level change in addition to fluctuations in the transmission loss at preferred resonant frequencies. The mechanism for this effect is acoustic mode coupling due to the depression of higher sound speed water into lower speed water at the pycnocline. It is also possible for this mechanism to induce a transfer of acoustic energy from below the thermocline into the mixed layer, and we concentrate on this scenario. One of the environmental effects on the length scale of the internal wave packet has been shown to be dissipation. The effect of this scale broadening on the resonant frequency is studied. Through rigorous simulations, it is shown that this effect produces a positive shift in the frequency line structure. Also offered is a simple model for this effect, based on mode coupling theory, that qualitatively predicts several features observed in the simulations.

Descriptors:

• *OCEANS
• *OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS
• SYMPOSIA
• ACOUSTIC WAVES
• ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
• RESONANT FREQUENCY
• LOW VELOCITY
• SHIFTING
• AIR WATER INTERACTIONS
• ACOUSTIC VELOCITY
• STRATIFICATION
• UNDERWATER SOUND
• INTERNAL WAVES
• SOLITONS
• THERMOCLINES
• WAVE PACKETS
• AUDIO FREQUENCY
• UNITED KINGDOM

Subject Categories:

• Biological Oceanography
• Physical and Dynamic Oceanography

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE