Composition of propagated,reflected and transmitted waves in arbitrary and continuously stratified environments

First, a solution is presented for a canonical problem in wave propagation. Second, illustrations and applications of the results are carried out to study cases which are relevant to the propagation problem in the ocean and atmosphere.The canonical problem consists of a plane wave incident on an arbitrary and continuously stratified region with planar boundaries. The explicit composition of the reflected, transmitted and propagated waves are derived. The solution is systematic and allows for (i) discontinuities in the acoustic properties at boundaries and arbitrary variation within, (ii) attenuation, (iii) all angles of incidence. The general expressions are obtained by using an alternate procedure to one recently devised 1]. The present approach is straightforward and plainly amenable to physical interpretation of its auxiliary mathematical constants. The discontinuities at the boundaries are satisfied at the outset. The reflected and transmitted waves are directly and explicitly specified. Comparison to widely used techniques in both analytical and numerical works is made to demonstrate the viability of the present approach.A series of cases relevant to the problem at hand are considered. These cases illustrate the mechanics involved in use of the method, and expand its application to problems that appear to be at variance with the formulation of the canonical problem. The illustrations include attenuation in the medium, effect on the solution of different acoustic discontinuities at the boundaries, and use of an inhomogeneous background profile with known independent solutions. The expanded applications treat formally three types of problems: (i) the exact solution for plane waves in continuously stratified media where the well-used ray theory or W-K-B approximation serves only as a first approximation in a correct iterative solution; (ii) the scattering of a plane wave by non-planar boundaries, i.e., spherical or cylindrical acoustic lens with the stratification along the radial direction; (iii) the field due to a point source in a continuously stratified wave guide, like the ocean or atmosphere.