A vertical eigenfunction expansion for the propagation of sound in a downward-refracting atmosphere over a complex impedance plane

The propagation of sound in a stratified downward-refracting atmosphere over a complex impedance plane is studied. The problem is solved by separating the wave equation into vertical and horizontal parts. The vertical part has non-self-adjoint boundary conditions, so that the well-known expansion in orthonormal eigenfunctions cannot be used. Instead, a less widely known eigenfunction expansion for non-self-adjoint ordinary differential operators is employed. As in the self-adjoint case, this expansion separates the acoustic field into a ducted part, expressed as a sum over modes which decrease exponentially with height, and an upwardly propagating part, expressed as an integral over modes which are asymptotically (with height) plane waves. The eigenvalues associated with the modes in this eigenfunction expansion are, in general, complex valued. A technique is introduced which expresses the non-self-adjoint problem as a perturbation of a self-adjoint one, allowing one to efficiently find the complex eigenvalues without having to resort to searches in the complex plane. Finally, an application is made to a model for the nighttime boundary layer.