Brown Michael G.

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Brown
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Michael G.
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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Article
    Piecewise coherent mode processing of acoustic data recorded on two horizontally separated vertical line arrays
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2012-05-25) Udovydchenkov, Ilya A. ; Brown, Michael G. ; Duda, Timothy F.
    Motivated by measurements made in the 2004 Long-Range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment (LOAPEX), the problem of mode processing transient acoustic signals collected on two nearby vertical line arrays is considered. The first three moments (centroid, variance, and skewness) of broadband distributions of acoustic energy with fixed mode number (referred to as modal group arrivals) are estimated. It is shown that despite the absence of signal coherence between the two arrays and poor high mode number energy resolution, the centroid and variance of these distributions can be estimated with tolerable errors using piecewise coherent mode processing as described in this paper.
  • Article
    Modal analysis of the range evolution of broadband wavefields in the North Pacific Ocean : low mode numbers
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2012-06) Udovydchenkov, Ilya A. ; Brown, Michael G. ; Duda, Timothy F. ; Mercer, James A. ; Andrew, Rex K. ; Worcester, Peter F. ; Dzieciuch, Matthew A. ; Howe, Bruce M. ; Colosi, John A.
    The results of mode-processing measurements of broadband acoustic wavefields made in the fall of 2004 as part of the Long-Range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment (LOAPEX) in the eastern North Pacific Ocean are reported here. Transient wavefields in the 50–90 Hz band that were recorded on a 1400 -m long 40 element vertical array centered near the sound channel axis are analyzed. This array was designed to resolve low-order modes. The wavefields were excited by a ship-suspended source at seven ranges, between approximately 50 and 3200 km, from the receiving array. The range evolution of broadband modal arrival patterns corresponding to fixed mode numbers (“modal group arrivals”) is analyzed with an emphasis on the second (variance) and third (skewness) moments. A theory of modal group time spreads is described, emphasizing complexities associated with energy scattering among low-order modes. The temporal structure of measured modal group arrivals is compared to theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. Theory, simulations, and observations generally agree. In cases where disagreement is observed, the reasons for the disagreement are discussed in terms of the underlying physical processes and data limitations.
  • Article
    Investigating the connection between complexity of isolated trajectories and Lagrangian coherent structures
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union and the American Geophysical Union, 2011-12-15) Rypina, Irina I. ; Scott, S. E. ; Pratt, Lawrence J. ; Brown, Michael G.
    It is argued that the complexity of fluid particle trajectories provides the basis for a new method, referred to as the Complexity Method (CM), for estimation of Lagrangian coherent structures in aperiodic flows that are measured over finite time intervals. The basic principles of the CM are explained and the CM is tested in a variety of examples, both idealized and realistic, and in different reference frames. Two measures of complexity are explored in detail: the correlation dimension of trajectory, and a new measure – the ergodicity defect. Both measures yield structures that strongly resemble Lagrangian coherent structures in all of the examples considered. Since the CM uses properties of individual trajectories, and not separation rates between closely spaced trajectories, it may have advantages for the analysis of ocean float and drifter data sets in which trajectories are typically widely and non-uniformly spaced.
  • Article
    Weakly dispersive modal pulse propagation in the North Pacific Ocean
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2013-10) Udovydchenkov, Ilya A. ; Brown, Michael G. ; Duda, Timothy F. ; Worcester, Peter F. ; Dzieciuch, Matthew A. ; Mercer, James A. ; Andrew, Rex K. ; Howe, Bruce M. ; Colosi, John A.
    The propagation of weakly dispersive modal pulses is investigated using data collected during the 2004 long-range ocean acoustic propagation experiment (LOAPEX). Weakly dispersive modal pulses are characterized by weak dispersion- and scattering-induced pulse broadening; such modal pulses experience minimal propagation-induced distortion and are thus well suited to communications applications. In the LOAPEX environment modes 1, 2, and 3 are approximately weakly dispersive. Using LOAPEX observations it is shown that, by extracting the energy carried by a weakly dispersive modal pulse, a transmitted communications signal can be recovered without performing channel equalization at ranges as long as 500 km; at that range a majority of mode 1 receptions have bit error rates (BERs) less than 10%, and 6.5% of mode 1 receptions have no errors. BERs are estimated for low order modes and compared with measurements of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and modal pulse spread. Generally, it is observed that larger modal pulse spread and lower SNR result in larger BERs.
  • Article
    Mode filters and energy conservation
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2010-04-07) Udovydchenkov, Ilya A. ; Rypina, Irina I. ; Brown, Michael G.
    The discrete form of the mode filtering problem is considered. The relevant equations constitute a linear inverse problem. Solutions to problems of this type are subject to a well-known trade-off between resolution and precision. But unlike the typical linear inverse problem, the correctly formulated mode filtering problem is subject to an energy conservation constraint. This letter focuses on the importance of satisfying, approximately at least, the energy conservation constraint when mode filtering is performed.
  • Article
    Transport in an idealized three-gyre system with application to the Adriatic Sea
    (American Meteorological Society, 2009-03) Rypina, Irina I. ; Brown, Michael G. ; Kocak, Huseyin
    Motivated by observations of surface drifters in the Adriatic Sea, transport in a three-gyre system is studied with the aid of dynamical systems techniques. Particular attention is paid to the issue of intergyre transport. The velocity field is assumed to be two-dimensional and incompressible and composed of a steady three-gyre background flow on which a time-dependent perturbation is superimposed. Two systems of this type are considered: 1) an observationally motivated, analytically prescribed model consisting of a steady background on which a multiperiodic time-dependent perturbation is superimposed, and 2) an observationally based model of the Adriatic Sea consisting of the mean surface circulation derived from surface drifter trajectories on which a time-dependent altimetry-based perturbation velocity field is superimposed. It is shown that for a small perturbation to the steady three-gyre background, two of the gyres exchange no fluid with the third gyre. When the perturbation strength exceeds a certain threshold, transport between all three gyres occurs. This behavior is described theoretically, illustrated using the analytic model and shown to be consistent with the observationally based model of the Adriatic. The relevance of the work presented to more complicated multiple-gyre problems is discussed.
  • Article
    Zonal jets as transport barriers in planetary atmospheres
    (American Meteorological Society, 2008-10) Beron-Vera, F. J. ; Brown, Michael G. ; Olascoaga, M. J. ; Rypina, Irina I. ; Kocak, Huseyin ; Udovydchenkov, Ilya A.
    The connection between transport barriers and potential vorticity (PV) barriers in PV-conserving flows is investigated with a focus on zonal jets in planetary atmospheres. A perturbed PV staircase model is used to illustrate important concepts. This flow consists of a sequence of narrow eastward and broad westward zonal jets with a staircase PV structure; the PV steps are at the latitudes of the cores of the eastward jets. Numerically simulated solutions to the quasigeostrophic PV conservation equation in a perturbed PV staircase flow are presented. These simulations reveal that both eastward and westward zonal jets serve as robust meridional transport barriers. The surprise is that westward jets, across which the background PV gradient vanishes, serve as robust transport barriers. A theoretical explanation of the underlying barrier mechanism is provided. It is argued that transport barriers near the cores of westward zonal jets, across which the background PV gradient is small, are found in Jupiter’s midlatitude weather layer and in the earth’s summer hemisphere subtropical stratosphere.