Optical Analysis for the 1971 ARPA Tower Experiment

Abstract

During the months of September and October 1971, the Naval Research Laboratory performed optical measurements at the Naval Undersea Research and Development Center tower off Mission Bay near San Diego, California. The optical measurements consisted of oblique photographs and wide-angle photography from which the ocean spectrum was analyzed as a function of time using the Sea Photo Analysis (SPA) technique. In conjunction with measurements being made simultaneously by other investigators, an attempt was made to experimentally determine the interaction of internal waves and wind-driven surface waves. This report discusses the results of the optical analysis of the sea photographs taken at 15-s intervals. The results show temporal variations of the spectral amplitude in the range of wavelengths from about 3 cm to 1 m. These temporal variations exhibit changes as large as 15 dB on occasion. Because of the superposition of many effects, such as tides, magnitude and direction variations of the wind, internal-wave amplitude, contamination; no unique signature was deduced for the interaction of internal and surface waves. There is evidence for a mild frequency dependence of the interaction.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 12, 1972
Accession Number
AD0742334

Entities

People

  • Denzil Stilwell Jr.

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atmospheric Motion
  • Cameras
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Data Analysis
  • Depression Angles
  • Frequency
  • Internal Waves
  • Long Wavelengths
  • Military Research
  • Modulation
  • Optical Analysis
  • Photographs
  • Photography
  • Surface Waves
  • Two Dimensional
  • Water Waves
  • Wind Velocity

Readers

  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Geodesy
  • Spectroscopy.