A modal/WKB inversion method for determining sound speed profiles in the ocean and ocean bottom

Abstract

Two approaches to determining the ocean sound speed profile using measured acoustic modal eigenvalues are examined. Both methods use measured eigenvalues and mode dependent assumed values of the WKB phase integral as input data and use the WKB phase integral as a starting point for relating the index of refraction to depth. Inversion method one is restricted to monotonic or symmetric sound speed profiles and requires a measurement of the sound speed at one depth to convert the index of refraction profile to a sound speed profile. Inversion method two assumes that the sound speed at the surface and the minimum sound speed in the profile are known and is applicable to monotonic profiles and to general single duct sound speed profiles. For asymmetric profiles, inversion method two gives the depth difference between two points of equal sound speed in the portion of the profile having two turning points, and in the remainder of the profile it gives sound speed versus depth directly. A numerical implementation of the methods is demonstrated using idealized ocean sound speed profiles numerical experiments used to test the performance of the inversions using noisy data. The two methods are used to determine the sediment sound speed profiles in two shallow water waveguide models, and inversion method one is used to find the sediment sound speed profile using data from an experiment performed in the Gulf of Mexico.