Project Kiwi One: an acoustic cross-section of the South Pacific Ocean

The deep ocean sound channel is used to obtain very long range (typically >2,000 km) acoustic transmission 1 via totally refracted propagation paths (SOFAR propagation 2 ). Such experiments can therefore determine the acoustic transmission properties of large areas of ocean 3 . Those acoustic pro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1979-12, Vol.282 (5741), p.820-822
Main Authors: Browning, D. G., Bannister, R. W., Denham, R. N., Guthrie, K. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The deep ocean sound channel is used to obtain very long range (typically >2,000 km) acoustic transmission 1 via totally refracted propagation paths (SOFAR propagation 2 ). Such experiments can therefore determine the acoustic transmission properties of large areas of ocean 3 . Those acoustic propagation experiments can be used to locate major ocanographic changes 4 and to identify specific water masses 5 . A 10,000-km underwater sound transmission experiment conducted between New Zealand and Peru to obtain an acoustic cross-section of the South Pacific Ocean is described here. Three distinct regions of transmission loss were found. The highest attenuation, which is attributed to Antarctic intermediate water, occurred in the central South Pacific Ocean.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/282820a0