North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory and Deep Water Acoustics

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, while the ambient noise field is in direct competition with the received signal. Research conducted in the North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory (NPAL) and Deep Water Acoustics programs at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL-UW) is directed toward a complete understanding of the basic physics of low-frequency, long-range, deep water, broadband acoustic propagation, the effects of ocean variability on signal coherence, and the fundamental limits to signal processing at long-range that are imposed by ocean processes. The long-term goal of this research is to optimize advanced signal processing techniques, including matched-field processing and adaptive array processing methods, based upon knowledge about the multi-dimensional character of the propagation and noise fields and their impact on long-range ocean acoustic signal transmissions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2014
Accession Number
ADA617893

Entities

People

  • Andrew Dickson White
  • James A. Mercer

Organizations

  • University of Washington

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Measurement
  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Acoustics
  • Ambient Noise
  • Data Analysis
  • Deep Water
  • Doppler Effect
  • Frequency
  • Information Science
  • Internal Waves
  • Oceans
  • Physics
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Signal Processing
  • Simulations
  • Water
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.