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Modelling sound propagation under ice using the Ocean Acoustics Library's Acoustic Toolbox
Citation
Alexander, P and Duncan, A and Bose, N, Modelling sound propagation under ice using the Ocean Acoustics Library's Acoustic Toolbox, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Australian Acoustical Society, 21-23 November, Fremantle, WA, pp. 1-7. ISBN 9780646590394 (2012) [Refereed Conference Paper]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2012 The Australian Acoustical Society
Official URL: http://www.acoustics.asn.au/conference_proceedings...
Abstract
Acoustic propagation in the Arctic and Antarctic is largely characterised by the presence of a highly variable ice canopy.
To model sound in these environments requires both a way of effectively representing the ice layer and modelling its effect
on signal transmission. The Ocean Acoustics Library has a powerful open source Acoustics Toolbox that contains Fortran
code for running Ray, Normal Mode, and Wavenumber Integration models. There are two parts to modelling a sea ice
environment: modelling the ice as an elastic acoustic medium, and modelling the roughness of the ridging characteristics
of the ice. This work considers the scenario of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) producing a survey under
ridged sea ice. This specifies a range of interest of 10km and a frequency band of interest of 3kHz-13kHz. An overview
of methods for modelling ice as an acoustic medium and as a ridged surface is provided, and the applicability of different
propagation and ice models for this scenario is discussed. The scenario is then implemented as a specific test case for two
example ice canopy profiles. The ice canopy profiles used are sea ice draft measurements recorded in the Arctic using an
upward looking SONAR on a nuclear submarine. Beam and ray methods are the only computationally fast propagation
codes for this frequency range and are included in the BELLHOP module of the Acoustics Toolbox. With these methods
the options for including the elastic properties of the ice are limited and only include reduction in the coherent field on
reflection. Two methods for including the ridging of the ice canopy are implemented, one statistically based and one using
direct input of measured ice canopy data. The statistically based method uses Twersky boss scattering, and the direct
method inputs the draft data as an altimetry file. Gaussian beam tracing using BELLHOP is run to generate ray trace and
coherent transmission loss estimates of this environment. The advantages and limitations of these implementations are
discussed with suggestions for future improvements to the Acoustics Toolbox to better model the ice scenarios outlined.
The improvements identified from this review and test case are: the capability to include specific ice condition data where
available, better consideration of the elastic properties of the ice in BELLHOP; and new statistical methods for modelling
unknown variable surface boundaries that provide statistical distribution information as well as mean field values.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Conference Paper |
---|---|
Research Division: | Engineering |
Research Group: | Maritime engineering |
Research Field: | Ocean engineering |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in engineering |
UTAS Author: | Alexander, P (Ms Polly Alexander) |
UTAS Author: | Bose, N (Professor Neil Bose) |
ID Code: | 82700 |
Year Published: | 2012 |
Deposited By: | NC Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics |
Deposited On: | 2013-02-13 |
Last Modified: | 2014-08-25 |
Downloads: | 268 View Download Statistics |
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