Effect of random hydrodynamic inhomogeneities on low-frequency sound propagation loss in shallow water.
Andrey A. Lunkov and Valeriy G. Petnikov

         Low-frequency (100-500 Hz) sound propagation loss on the US Atlantic continental shelf and in the Barents Sea in the presence of stochastic surface waves, and for the US Atlantic shelf also in the presence of internal waves, is studied for the range of up to 150 km by means of numerical simulations. Surface waves simulations are carried out with Pierson-Neumann spectrum. Internal wave field realizations are modeled according to frequency spectrum of thermocline displacements that were recorded in Shallow Water'06 experiment. Qualitative difference between sound propagation loss behavior on the US Atlantic shelf and in the Barents Sea is demonstrated for summertime conditions even without random inhomogeneities. It is shown that whereas internal waves, on average, have a weak effect on propagation loss, surface waves result in its considerable increase in both areas under wintertime conditions with a wind speed of more than 9 m/s.

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