Monitoring Air-Sea Exchange Processes Using the High Frequency Ambient Sound Field

The ambient sound field contains information about the processes generating the sound and the intervening media modifying the sound. This research seeks to demonstrate measurement of useful ocean surface processes using passive measurements of the high frequency underwater ambient sound field. This will allow passive monitoring of environmental conditions from simple and robust sensors, namely hydrophones. In turn, given environmental weather conditions, predictive Naval ocean ambient noise models will be improved. This technique introduces no acoustic disturbance to the environment, and is hence covert and poses no potential harm to marine mammals or other forms of life in the ocean.