CHARACTERISTIC SOUND-VELOCITY PROFILES IN THE SUB-ARCTIC PACIFIC OCEAN.

Temperature and salinity data from the Subarctic Pacific north of 40N and adjacent regions were reduced to sound-velocity profiles by means of digital computer and mechanical plotter techniques. Characteristic profiles from the surface to 1000 meters were identified in the Kuroshio and Oyashio Current regions and four of the five domains within the Subarctic region. A gross measure of the variation of velocity within each area was obtained by drawing an envelope into which could be fitted all the sample profiles for that area. Finally, some basic acoustic implications of the sound-velocity profiles were considered. It is suggested that this method of summarizing sound-velocity data may have a useful application in military oceanography, in that it is a relatively simple way of deriving and displaying the macroscale features of the sound-velocity distribution in the ocean. Author