APL - North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory

Abstract

The ultimate limitations to the performance of long-range sonar are due to ocean sound speed perturbations and the characteristics of the ambient acoustic noise field. Scattering and diffraction resulting from internal waves and other ocean processes limit the temporal and spatial coherence of the received signal, and the ambient noise field is in direct competition with the received signal. Research conducted in the North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory (NPAL) program at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL-UW) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is directed toward a complete understanding of the basic physics of low-frequency, long-range, broadband acoustic propagation, the effects of environmental variability on signal stability and coherence, and the fundamental limits to signal processing at long-range imposed by ocean processes. The long-term goal of NPAL is to optimize advanced signal processing techniques, including matched field processing and other adaptive array processing methods, based upon knowledge about the multi-dimensional character of the sound and noise fields and their impact on long-range ocean acoustic transmissions

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2005
Accession Number
ADA572344

Entities

People

  • Brian D. Dushaw
  • Bruce M Howe
  • James A. Mercer
  • Rex Andrew
  • Robert Spindel

Organizations

  • University of Washington

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Measurement
  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Acoustic Waves
  • Acoustics
  • Ambient Noise
  • Frequency
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Internal Waves
  • Measurement
  • Noise
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Physics
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Signal Processing
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Radar Systems Engineering.