Observations of biological choruses in the Southern California Bight: A chorus at midfrequencies

This paper describes the characteristics of an underwater biological chorus recorded in the midfrequency band (1-10 kHz) in the Southern California Bight. The recordings were made in July, 2002 by a large-vertical-aperture, 131-element, 2D billboard array. The chorus, observed predominantly on two consecutive nights during the 8-day experiment, is composed of two bands of energy centered around 1.5 kHz and between 4 and 5 kHz. It causes a complete reversal in the vertical directional characteristics of the mid-frequency ambient sound field between day and nighttime periods; whereas the vertical structure during the day shows a notch in the horizontal direction with levels more than 10 dB below those at higher angles, the nighttime levels in the horizontal can exceed those at other vertical angles by more than 10 dB. These nighttime sounds also are strongly anisotropic in azimuth; they appear to come mainly from a popular Southern California fishing spot where the water depths exceed 75 m. Vertical beam-to-beam coherence squared estimates suggest the chorus source region exists on spatial scales greater than the multipath interference wavelengths of this environment. Individual sounds comprising the chorus, although difficult to separate from the background din, have a fluttering, rasping character.     

Energy dependence of multiplicity in proton-nucleus collisions and models of multiparticle production

This is a continuation of our earlier investigation (Gurtuet al 1974Phys. Lett. 50 B 391) on multiparticle production in proton-nucleus collisions based on an exposure of emulsion stack to 200 GeV/c beam at the NAL. It is found that the ratioR _em = 〈n _s〉/〈n _ch〉, where 〈n _ch〉 is the charged particle multiplicity in pp-collisions, increases slowly from about 1 at 10 GeV/c to 1·6 at 68 GeV/c and attains a constant value of 1·71 ± 0·04 in the region 200 to 8000 GeV/c. Furthermore,R _em = 1·71 implies an effectiveA-dependence ofR _A =A ^0.18,i.e., a very weak dependence. Predictions ofR _em on various models are discussed and compared with the emulsion data. Data seem to favour models of hadron-nucleon collisions in which production of particles takes place through adouble step mechanism,e.g., diffractive excitation, hydrodynamical and energy flux cascade as opposed to models which envisage instantaneous production.     

Matched-field processing, geoacoustic inversion, and source signature recovery of blue whale vocalizations

Matched-field processing (MFP) and global inversion techniques have been applied to vocalizations from four whales recorded on a 48-element tilted vertical array off the Channel Islands in 1996. Global inversions from selected whale calls using as few as eight elements extracted information about the surrounding ocean bottom composition, array shape, and the animal's position. These inversion results were then used to conduct straightforward MFP on other calls. The sediment sound-speed inversion estimates are consistent with those derived from sediment samples collected in the area. In general, most animals swam from the east to west, but one animal remained within approximately 500 m of its original position over 45 min. All whales vocalized between 10 and 40 m depth. Three acoustic sequences are discussed in detail: the first illustrating a match between an acoustic track and visual sighting, the second tracking two whales to ranges out to 8 km, and the final sequence demonstrating high-resolution dive profiles from an animal that changed its course to avoid the research platform FLIP (floating instrument platform). This last whale displayed an unusual diversity of signals that include three strong frequency-modulated (FM) downsweeps which contain possible signs of an internal resonance. The arrival of this same whale coincided with a sudden change in oceanographic conditions.     

Localization using Bartlett matched-field processor sidelobes

Ambiguity surface sidelobes generated by the Bartlett matched-field processor (MFP) shift location with frequency. This sidelobe shift can be viewed as a continuous trajectory in a range-frequency plane at a fixed depth, where the trajectories converge to the correct source range for a perfectly matched surface. In isovelocity or bottom-interacting environments the sidelobe trajectories are straight lines that converge to the true range at zero frequency, while environments with upward-refracting sound-speed profiles have trajectories that asymptotically converge as the frequency approaches infinity. This behavior can be explained by the theory of waveguide invariants, which predict the local behavior of interference maxima/minima of acoustic intensity in the frequency-range plane. As the ambiguity surface of the Bartlett matched-field processor has a physical interpretation in terms of a time-reversed acoustic field, with the sidelobes analogous to local interference maxima, these invariant concepts can be reformulated for application to MFP. These interference trajectories are demonstrated to exist in simulations, broadband source tows, and a type A blue whale vocalization. Sidelobe trajectories also exist in the range-depth plane, but they contain no information about the correct source depth. An appendix demonstrates how these sidelobe properties can be exploited when combining ambiguity surfaces through use of gradient and Radon transform information. The resulting range estimators demonstrate better peak-to-sidelobe ratios than a simple incoherent average.     

Evidence of Doppler-shifted Bragg scattering in the vertical plane by ocean surface waves

A set of narrowband tones (280, 370, 535, and 695 Hz) were transmitted by an acoustic source mounted on the ocean floor in 10 m deep water and received by a 64-element hydrophone line array lying on the ocean bottom 1.25 km away. Beamformer output in the vertical plane for the received acoustic tones shows evidence of Doppler-shifted Bragg scattering of the transmitted acoustic signals by the ocean surface waves. The received, scattered signals show dependence on the ocean surface wave frequencies and wavenumber vectors, as well as on acoustic frequencies and acoustic mode wavenumbers. Sidebands in the beamformer output are offset in frequency by amounts corresponding to ocean surface wave frequencies. Deviations in vertical arrival angle from specular reflection agree with those predicted by the Bragg condition through first-order perturbation theory using measured directional surface wave spectra and acoustic modes measured by the horizontal hydrophone array.     

Computational Investigation of the Substituent Effect on the Intramolecular Proton Transfer Reaction of 3-Hydroxytropolone

The effects of substituent type and position on the proton transfer reaction of 3-hydroxytropolone(3-OHTRN) have been investigated theoretically by using density functional theory at the level of B3LYP/ 6-31+G** method. The influence of solvent on the proton transfer reactions of substituted 3-OHTRN has been examined using the self-consistent isodensity polarized continuum model(SCI-PCM) in water. As a result, while the proton transfer reaction is kinetically the easiest by substitution on position 3 of-NH2 group in the gas phase, it is kinetically the easiest by substitution on position 5 of the same group in water. In addition, these reactions are either kinetically or thermodynamically easier in the gas phase than that in water, except the reaction of structure with-NH2 group at position 6.     

Measurement and modeling of the acoustic field near an underwater vehicle and implications for acoustic source localization

The performance of traditional techniques of passive localization in ocean acoustics such as time-of-arrival (phase differences) and amplitude ratios measured by multiple receivers may be degraded when the receivers are placed on an underwater vehicle due to effects of scattering. However, knowledge of the interference pattern caused by scattering provides a potential enhancement to traditional source localization techniques. Results based on a study using data from a multi-element receiving array mounted on the inner shroud of an autonomous underwater vehicle show that scattering causes the localization ambiguities (side lobes) to decrease in overall level and to move closer to the true source location, thereby improving localization performance, for signals in the frequency band 2-8 kHz. These measurements are compared with numerical modeling results from a two-dimensional time domain finite difference scheme for scattering from two fluid-loaded cylindrical shells. Measured and numerically modeled results are presented for multiple source aspect angles and frequencies. Matched field processing techniques quantify the source localization capabilities for both measurements and numerical modeling output.