Numerical Studies of Acoustic Particle Velocity and Acoustic Variability with a SSF/PE Model

The calculation of underwater acoustic pressure fields using numerical models has been at the core of numerous projects related to both sonar and environmental applications. This varies from simple sonar “range-of-the-day” predictions to the inversion of acoustic data for determination of bottom ocean properties. Although great progress has been made with existing models that compute the acoustic pressure field, much of the previous work has ignored other aspects of the propagation, such as the additional information available in the associated acoustic particle velocity fields, and the impact of environmental uncertainty on sonar predictions. The goal of this 2-year project was to examine these issues and determine how they may be utilized to improve performance for a variety of applications.