Variability of the vertical interference structure of the sound field in a shallow sea

Dynamics of the spectral intensity oscillations that occur in the vertical plane because of the time variability of the medium along the propagation path is described. The errors arising in measuring the frequency shifts of the interference structure are considered. For low-frequency broadband signals received on a stationary propagation path, experimental data on the shifts of their frequency spectra due to the variation of the reception depth are presented. The number of interfering modes and their arrival directions in the vertical plane are estimated from the measured frequency shifts of the spectral intensity oscillation.     

Diffraction focusing of the sound field of a vertical antenna array in a range-dependent shallow sea

Using the adiabatic approximation for the mode representation of the sound field, it is shown that the efficiency of the diffraction focusing grows when the thickness of the isovelocity water layer increases with distance.     

Characteristic features of the sound field formation near the bottom of a shallow sea

Detailed calculated data are presented for the angular, temporal, and energy structures of the sound field at the points of localtion of a horizontal line array of receivers (at 250-m intervals) in a shallow sea. The array is deployed near the bottom of a 200-m-deep waveguide along a sound propagation track, at distances from 20 to 30 km from a source generating a signal in the kilohertz frequency range. The influence of a sand or mud bottom on the intensity of signals arriving along single rays is numerically estimated for winter and summer conditions of sound propagation in a specific region of the Barents Sea.     

Determination of the mode composition of the sound field with a single-point reception in a shallow sea

A possibility of determining the mode composition of the sound field in a shallow sea is considered. The procedure involves the transmission of a short pulse by a point source and the subsequent reception of this pulse at a single point. It is shown that the problem can be solved by using linearly frequency-modulated broadband pulses at relatively short distances (about 20 km), where the attenuation of the signal is rather weak. To take into account the intramode dispersion, it is proposed to use the value of the dispersion typical of a perfect Pekeris waveguide with a stiff bottom. With the use of the calculations and the experimental data obtained in the Barents Sea, it is shown that the proposed approximation is sufficient to determine the mode composition of the sound field.     

Effect of background internal waves on the interference structure of the sound field in a shallow sea

The results of a theoretical analysis of the effect produced by an anisotropic field of background internal waves on the localization of the interference pattern in a shallow sea are presented. The space-time variability of the interference invariant and the smearing of the observation direction of interference fringes are considered in a wide frequency range. The stability of the interference pattern formed by both the superposition of the fields of different mode groups and separate mode groups is analyzed in comparison with the unperturbed waveguide. Numerical calculations are performed for longitudinal and transverse orientations of the acoustic track relative to the propagation direction of internal waves.     

Summation of modes of a sound signal in a shallow sea

Results of an experiment on the summation of selected modes of a sound signal in a shallow sea (the Barents Sea, a sea depth of 120 m, a 17-km-long path) are presented. The experiment is performed with the use of a point source generating a broadband pulsed signal with a duration of 5 s and a linear frequency modulation within 100–300 Hz. The mode selection in the in-sea experiment is achieved using a vertical antenna array (32 hydrophones, length of 96 m). It is shown that the mode signals selected at the end of the path are formed with a part of the path. The modes are summed coherently (with the use of two methods) and incoherently. The noise immunity of the mode summation is estimated.     

Optimization of mode composition of the acoustic field excited by a vertical antenna array in a shallow sea

The problem statement is described, and the solution to the problem of optical tuning of the radiating antenna array providing for the optimal mode composition of the field radiated to a waveguide is determined. Matlab software is developed based on the proposed algorithms, and the optimal fields for shallow sea waveguides are calculated.     

Measured and calculated vertical structure of a sound field in the ocean

Results of measuring the monochromatic sound field with a dipping probe in the deep ocean are presented. The sound speed profile in the region of measurements had a minimum at a depth of 1600 m. The experiment was carried out in the Atlantic Ocean with the use of two vessels separated by a distance of approximately four ray cycles (～240 km). The experimental data are compared with the calculations based on a new concept of the Brillouin waves for describing the vertical structure of the sound field produced by rays. It is shown that a satisfactory agreement between experiment and calculation can be achieved by fitting the parameters of the experiment. Such a procedure allows one to refine or even to determine the experimental conditions, which not are always known. The proposed method of calculation offers an opportunity for solving inverse problems of ocean acoustics.     

Experimental and theoretical study of the quantum-confined Stark effect in a single InGaN/GaN quantum dot under applied vertical electric field

We present a study of the effect of externally applied vertical electric field on the optical properties of single InGaN/GaN quantum dots via microphotoluminescence spectroscopy. This is achieved by incorporating the quantum dot layer in the intrinsic region of a p–i–n diode structure. We observe a large blue energy shift of 60 meV, which is explained by the partial compensation of the internal piezoelectric field. The energy shift dependence on the applied field allows the determination of the vertical component of the permanent dipole and the polarizability. We also present theoretical modelling of our results based on atomistic semi-empirical tight-binding simulations. A good quantitative agreement between the experiment and the theory is found.     

Selection of modes in a shallow sea by using a vertical antenna array

The experimental data on selecting the modes in a shallow sea (the Barents Sea) on 17-and 8-km-long paths are presented. The data are obtained with the use of a 93-m-long vertical receiving array of 32 hydrophones and a point sound source transmitting a pulsed signal with linear frequency modulation in a frequency band of 100–300 Hz. The experimental selection of modes is based on the structure of normal waves in a waveguide with a perfectly reflecting impedance bottom. The bottom impedance for different modes is determined from the experiment. A pressure-release bottom and a bottom with an impedance that is intermediate between the pressure-release and rigid cases correspond to the first mode and the higher modes, respectively. The amplitudes of the modes and their directivity are determined. On the basis of the mode dispersion data and the comparison of the mode contents observed at distances of 8 and 17 km, it is concluded that higher modes are generated at the distances from 8 to 17 km.     

Effect of the sound velocity stratification in the bottom sediment layer on the diffraction focusing of an acoustic field in a shallow sea

It is shown that an increase in the sound velocity gradient in the bottom sediment layer results in the formation of additional zones of diffraction focusing of the acoustic field generated by a vertical line array in the water layer. It is also established that, depending on the sound velocity step at the upper boundary of the sediment layer, the diffraction focusing of the acoustic field in the main focusing zones can be enhanced or reduced.     

On the sound field of a shallow spherical shell in an infinite baffle

A method is presented for calculating the far field sound radiation from a shallow spherical shell in an acoustic medium. The shell has a concentrated ring mass boundary condition at its perimeter representing a loudspeaker voice coil and is excited by a concentrated ring force exerted by the end of the voice coil. A Green's function is developed for a shallow spherical shell, which is based upon Reissner's solution to the shell wave equation [Q. Appl. Math. 13, 279-290 (1955)]. The shell is then coupled to the surrounding acoustic medium using an eigenfunction expansion, with unknown coefficients, for its deflection. The resulting surface pressure distribution is solved using the King integral together with the free space Green's function in cylindrical coordinates. In order to eliminate the need for numerical integration, the radiation (coupling) integrals are solved analytically to yield fast converging expansions. Hence, a set of simultaneous equations is obtained which is solved for the coefficients of the eigenfunction expansion. These coefficients are finally used in formulas for the far field sound radiation.     

Experimental studies of low-frequency bistatic reverberation in a shallow sea

Experimental data are presented on time and frequency dependences of the reverberation level for bistatic transmission and reception at low acoustic frequencies. The data are obtained from the studies carried out in a coastal shallow-water region and in the central region of the Barents Sea with explosion-generated and pulsed cw signals. By using the simplest computational model, approximate estimates are obtained for the effective coefficient of spatial attenuation and the effective scattering coefficient in the frequency band 40–400 Hz.     

The coherence of low-frequency sound in shallow water in the presence of internal waves

The coherence time and transverse coherence length of a low-frequency (100–300 Hz) sound field that is formed by an omnidirectional point source at a distance of 10–30 km in a shallow-water acoustic waveguide, which is characteristic of an open ocean shelf, were estimated analytically and in a numerical experiment. An anisotropic field of background internal waves is considered as a source of spatiotemporal fluctuations. It is shown that the coherence time decreases as the frequency increases, and strongly depends on the perturbation-movement direction. The transverse coherence length is primarily determined by phase incursions that are related to the cylindrical shape of the acoustic-wave front. In the case of transverse propagation, background internal waves may lead to significant variations in this length. The introduction of compensating phase corrections during processing provides a considerable increase in the average transverse coherence length.     

Surface reverberation at sound field focusing in shallow water

A numerical experiment is carried out to study the long-range surface reverberation in the presence of intense surface waves for the case of using vertical transmitting arrays providing sound field focusing at different depths. To focus the field, a phase conjugation of acoustic waves from a probe source positioned at the focusing point is used. It is demonstrated that surface waves considerably affect the focusing quality at a distance of several tens of kilometers from the transmitting array. This prevents the efficient suppression of long-range reverberation by increasing the focusing depth.     

The possibility of reconstruction of two-dimensional random inhomogeneities in a shallow sea by frequency shifts of the spatial interference structure of the sound field

Fluctuations of frequency shifts of the spatial interference structure of the sound field in the oceanic waveguide, caused by a two-dimensional field of a random perturbation, are described. Various schemes of observation point spacing are considered. The possibility is shown to reconstruct the spatial spectrum of waveguide perturbations by measuring the spatial spectrum of the frequency shift of the interference pattern. The results of the theoretical treatment are illustrated by the examples of background internal waves and bottom roughness. The sensitivity of monitoring based on measurements of frequency shifts of the interference structure of the sound field is estimated. For medium perturbations by background internal waves, the fluctuations of liquid layer vibrations, sound speed, and temperature, which are minimum detectable by frequency shifts of the interference pattern, were estimated.     

Transverse-longitudinal coherence function of a sound field for line-of-sight propagation in a turbulent atmosphere

Using the narrow-angle and Markov approximations, a formula for the transverse-longitudinal coherence function of a sound field propagating in a turbulent atmosphere with temperature and wind velocity fluctuations is derived. This function, which applies to observation points that are arbitrarily located in space, generalizes the transverse coherence function (coherence when the observation points are in a plane perpendicular to the sound propagation path), which has been studied extensively. The new result is expressed in terms of the transverse coherence function and the extinction coefficient of the mean sound field. The transverse-longitudinal coherence function of a plane sound wave is then calculated and studied in detail for the Gaussian and von Kármán spectra of temperature and wind velocity fluctuations. It is shown, for relatively small propagation distances, that the magnitude of the coherence function decreases in the longitudinal direction but remains almost constant in the transverse direction. On the other hand, for moderate and large propagation distances, the magnitude of the coherence decreases faster in the transverse direction than in the longitudinal. For some parameters of the problem, the coherence function has relatively large local maxima and minima as the transverse and longitudinal coordinates are varied. With small modifications, many results obtained in the paper can be applied to studies of electromagnetic wave propagation in a turbulent atmosphere.     

Determination of the vertical directivity of a short pulse transmission at individual modes in a shallow sea

A method for the numerical determination of the directivity of an antenna array is considered with delay increments much shorter than the sampling period for the input signals. The method is used for determining the vertical directivity of individual modes specified according to their travel times at each hydrophone of the array. In addition to the signal with the directivity of the third mode, a signal is observed with the directivity of the first mode, which slightly advances the signal of the third mode but arrives noticeably later than the first-mode signal. The additional signal is received only by the hydrophones positioned near the sea bottom. This fact suggests a conclusion that the additional signal is caused by the scattering of the third mode from the bottom. The experiment is performed in the Barents Sea with a depth of 120 m at distances of 8 and 17 km.     

Possibility of reconstructing hydrological variability of shallow sea by measuring frequency shifts of interference structure of sound field

Variations in the vertical space-frequency interference structure of the sound field in the oceanic waveguide are described. Reconstruction algorithms of sound speed field, based on information on frequency shifts of interference maxima of the sound field, are presented.