Report on the Office of Naval Research international workshop on shallow water acoustics, San Francisco, CA, 8-9 December 1997
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Authors
Denner, Warren W.
Chiu, Ching-Sang
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1998-03
Date
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
Under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research, an international workshop on shallow water acoustics was held in San Francisco on December 8-9, 1997. The purpose of this two-day workshop was to investigate the scientific, engineering and logistic rationales that might form the basis for a collaborative international experiment in an Asian sea. Attended by 42 participants from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, Singapore, and the United States, the first day of the workshop featured a series of short presentations by the representatives of the different countries on their research interests, and what resources they might be able to contribute to a collaborative experiment if it were to take place in 1999. On the second day, a group discussion on potential sites, research vessels, surveying and moored equipment, and scientific issues was carried out.
This workshop shows that acoustics clearly unifies many diverse interests of ocean scientists; geological, physical, biological and chemical. Each of these has distinct roles in the propagation of sound energy in the ocean, and inversely acoustical techniques provide powerful means for understanding properties and processes in each of these areas of ocean science. Bottom interaction acoustics is one of the many good examples: Acoustical techniques are the only efficient means of exploring the composition and structure of the sea floor over any sizable area. Inversely the interaction of acoustic energy with the bottom is one of the most significant factors in determining the acoustic wavefield in shallow water. Bottom scattering and reverberation and sub-bottom inversion techniques were identified as principal interest by several of the participants.
Nearly all the participants expressed an interest in the possible collaborative experiment and had resources to contribute. While a site for the experiment was not selected at the workshop, several locations were proposed and discussed, with the majority of the participants favoring the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea. The amount of equipment available to the participants was formidable. It was clear that a very well designed experiment could be mounted, an experiment which would provide a wide range of observations on space and time scales that would be difficult for any individual country to achieve. It was agreed that a second workshop would be held in June 1998 to focus on the development of a detailed experimental plan.
Type
Technical Report
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
NPS-OC-98-002PR
Sponsors
Funding
This report was prepared for and funded by the Office of Naval Research under contract Number N0001498WR30091.
Format
38 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.