Simulation of acoustic multipath arrival structure in the Barents Sea

Abstract

In support of the Barents Sea Polar Front Experiment (BSPFEX) in September 1992 (Barents Sea Polar Front Group, 1992), the planned 224 Hz tomography signal transmissions from a near bottom sound source to a vertical receiver array consisting of 16 hydrophones were simulated. Acoustics rays were traced to the receiver array at a range of 50 km using the NOAA Hamiltonian Ray Tracing Program for the Ocean (HARPO). Input to HARPO was a mathematical ocean environment based on historical bathymetric and sound speed data. Acoustic multipath arrival structure was constructed through eigenray searches and estimations of raytube spreading and surface and bottom losses. A resolvability analysis of the simulate arrival structure reveals that there are a total of 49 unique resolvable ray arrivals. Among them, 42 are from individual omnidirectional hydrophones and 7 from plane wave beamforming