LOAPEX: The Long-Range Ocean Acoustic Propagation EXperiment
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the experimental goals and methods of the Long-range Ocean Acoustic Propagation EXperiment (LOAPEX), which took place in the northeast Pacific Ocean between September 10, 2004 and October 10, 2004. This experiment was designed to address a number of unresolved issues in long-range, deep-water acoustic propagation including the effect of ocean fluctuations such as internal waves on acoustic signal coherence, and the scattering of low-frequency sound, in particular, scattering into the deep acoustic shadow zone. Broadband acoustic transmissions centered near 75 Hz were made from various depths to a pair of vertical hydrophone arrays covering 3500 m of the water column, and to several bottom-mounted horizontal line arrays distributed throughout the northeast Pacific Ocean Basin. Path lengths varied from 50 km to several megameters. Beamformed receptions on the horizontal arrays contained 10?20-ms tidal signals, in agreement with a tidal model. Fifteen consecutive receptions on one of the vertical line arrays with a source range of 3200 km showed the potential for incoherent averaging. Finally, shadow zone receptions were observed on an ocean bottom seismometer at a depth of 5000 m from a source at 3200-250-km range.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA513408
Entities
People
- Bruce M Howe
- James A. Mercer
- John A. Colosi
- Matthew A. Dzieciuch
- Peter F. Worcester
- Ralph Stephen
Organizations
- University of Washington