Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE)
Abstract
Project Summary Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO, P.I. Peter Worcester) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, P.I. John Kemp) propose to conduct the Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE), consisting of a yearlong experiment in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean during 2016–2017, preceded by a short Pilot Study during summer 2015, in order to understand the effects of changing Arctic conditions on low-frequency, deep-water propagation and on the low-frequency ambient noise field. We plan in 2016–2017 to combine measurements of acoustic propagation and ambient noise with the use of acoustic remote sensing methods to help characterize the large-scale sound-speed field in this difficult-to-measure region that is still ice covered during much of the year. The Arctic ocean tomography array proposed here for the 2016–2017 CANAPE Experiment is not unlike that deployed during 1988–1989 as part of the Greenland Sea Project. In that case the ocean acoustic tomography array was deployed in open water during summer 1988, became covered with ice during the winter, and was recovered in open water (barely) during summer 1989. The primary goal in the Greenland Sea Project was to characterize deep convection and deep water formation in the Greenland Sea during winter. The data were also used, however, to study ambient noise, acoustic scattering losses in the marginal ice zone, and the effects of the mixed layer on acoustic pulse propagation. One significant difference is that we were unable then to deploy the large vertical arrays made possible by the Distributed Vertical Line Array (DVLA) technology developed at SIO in order to help characterize deep water acoustic propagation. The goal of the CANAPE experiments is to determine the fundamental limits to signal processing in the Arctic imposed by ice and ocean processes. The hope is that these first few new steps will lead to a larger, permanent acoustic monitoring, navigation, and communications network in the Arctic Ocean.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512068
Entities
People
- Peter F. Worcester
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego