The North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory deep-water acoustic propagation experiments in the Philippine Sea

Abstract

A series of experiments conducted in the Philippine Sea during 2009–2011 investigated deep-water acoustic propagation and ambient noise in this oceanographically and geologically complex region: (i) the 2009 North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory (NPAL) Pilot Study/Engineering Test, (ii) the 2010–2011 NPAL Philippine Sea Experiment, and (iii) the Ocean Bottom Seismometer Augmentation of the 2010–2011 NPAL Philippine Sea Experiment. The experimental goals included (a) understanding the impacts of fronts, eddies, and internal tides on acoustic propagation, (b) determining whether acoustic methods, together with other measurements and ocean modeling, can yield estimates of the time-evolving ocean state useful for making improved acoustic predictions, (c) improving our understanding of the physics of scattering by internal waves and spice, (d) characterizing the depth dependence and temporal variability of ambient noise, and (e) understanding the relationship between the acoustic field in the water column and the seismic field in the seafloor. In these experiments, moored and ship-suspended low-frequency acoustic sources transmitted to a newly developed distributed vertical line array receiver capable of spanning the water column in the deep ocean. The acoustic transmissions and ambient noise were also recorded by a towed hydrophone array, by acoustic Seagliders, and by ocean bottom seismometers.