The dynamic (acoustic pressure) and kinematic (acoustic acceleration and velocity) properties of time-limited signals are studied in terms of acoustic dose metrics as might be used to assess the impact of underwater noise on marine life. The work is relevant for the study of anthropogenic transient acoustic signals, such as airguns, pile driving, and underwater explosive sources, as well as more generic transient signals from sonar systems. Dose metrics are first derived from numerical simulations of sound propagation from a seismic airgun source as specified in a Joint Industry Programme benchmark problem. Similar analyses are carried out based on at-sea acoustic measurements on the continental shelf, made with a vector sensor positioned 1.45 m off the seabed. These measurements are on transient time-limited signals from multiple underwater explosive sources at differing ranges, and from a towed, sonar source. The study demonstrates, both numerically and experimentally, that under many realistic scenarios, kinematic based acoustic dosage metrics within the water column can be evaluated using acoustic pressure measurements.

Vector acoustic properties of a narrowband acoustic field are observed as a function of range from a source towed in waters of depth 77 m on the New England Mud Patch. At the source frequency (43 Hz), the waveguide supported three trapped modes, with mode 2 weakly excited owing to the towed source depth. The receiving sensor was positioned 1.45 m above the seafloor with a sampling range aperture of 2500 m. The vector acoustics observations enabled study of vortex regions that encompass two singular points for active acoustic intensity: the vortex point, which is co-located with a dislocation, and stagnation point. Interpretative modeling, based on the normal modes and using a geoacoustic model consistent with those emerging from studies conducted at this location, is in agreement with these measurements. Model-data comparisons were based on the first-order variables of acoustic pressure and velocity along with inverse Hankel transforms, which yield normalized horizontal wavenumber spectra, and second-order variables in the form of horizontal and vertical intensity as well as non-dimensional intensity-based ratios. These measures provide a degree of observational confirmation of some vortex region properties. Both observations and modeling point to a gradual deepening of such regions with increasing range owing to sediment attenuation.

The 75 Hz Kauai–Beacon source is well-situated for observing the North Pacific Ocean acoustically, and ongoing efforts enable transmissions and analysis of broadband signals in 2023 and beyond. This is the first demonstration of acoustic receiving along paths to Wake Island (~3500 km) and Monterey Bay (~4000 km). The 44 received m-sequence waveforms exhibit excellent phase stability with processing gain approaching the maximum theoretical gain evaluated over the 20 min signal transmission duration. The article concludes with a discussion on the future source utility and highlights research topics of interest, including observed Doppler (waveform dilation), thermometry, and tomography.

Observed near the seafloor, broadband noise emissions from a vessel passing directly above exhibit frequency bands where potential acoustic energy is greater than kinetic energy while the opposite occurs in neighboring frequency bands. The condition where the dynamic and kinematic energy forms differ in this manner is characteristic to interference involving steep angles or near-normal incidence reflection from the seafloor. Measurements are made at two experimental sites using a research vessel passing above a vector sensor, positioned ~1.5 m above the seabed, resulting in a vessel horizontal range approaching ~0. The data are expressed as a ratio of kinetic to potential energy in decibels and yield information on seabed properties. A model for kinetic and potential energy is developed from the method of images using a layered seabed and is used to invert data collected in Puget Sound. A higher-impedance seabed is identified via inversion, which is consistent with the thin Holocene sediments in the region. For data collected on the New England Mud Patch, the model is instead applied directly to nominal seabed parameters originating from prior studies that identify a low-speed mud layer atop a higher-speed transition layer separating the mud substrate from a sediment basement.

This is an investigation of sound propagation over a muddy seabed at low grazing angles. Data were collected during the 2017 Seabed and Bottom Characterization Experiment, conducted on the New England Mud Patch, a 500 km² area of the U.S. Eastern Continental Shelf characterized by a thick layer of muddy sediments. Sound Underwater Signals (SUS), model Mk64, were deployed at ranges of 1–15 km from a hydrophone positioned 1 m above the seafloor. SUS at the closest ranges provide measurements of the bottom reflection at low grazing angles (< 3 deg). Broadband analysis from 10 Hz to 10 kHz reveals resonances in the bottom reflected signals. Comparison of the measurements to simulated signals suggest a surficial layer of mud with a sound speed lower than the underlying mud and overlying water. The low sound speed property at the water–mud interface, which persists for less than 1 m, establishes a sound duct that impacts mid-frequency sound propagation at low grazing angles. The presence of a low-speed surficial layer of mud could be universal to muddy seabeds and, hence, has strong implications for mid-frequency sound propagation wherever mud is present.

In ocean acoustics, shallow water propagation is conveniently described using normal mode propagation. This article proposes a framework to describe the polarization of normal modes, as measured using a particle velocity sensor in the water column. To do so, the article introduces the Stokes parameters, a set of four real-valued quantities widely used to describe polarization properties in wave physics, notably for light. Stokes parameters of acoustic normal modes are theoretically derived, and a signal processing framework to estimate them is introduced. The concept of the polarization spectrogram, which enables the visualization of the Stokes parameters using data from a single vector sensor, is also introduced. The whole framework is illustrated on simulated data as well as on experimental data collected during the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment. By introducing the Stokes framework used in many other fields, the article opens the door to a large set of methods developed and used in other contexts but largely ignored in ocean acoustics.

The Intensity Vector Autonomous Recorder (IVAR) measures acoustic particle velocity and pressure simultaneously. IVAR was deployed on the seabed during the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment (SBCEX) with the primary objective to study sound propagation within underwater waveguides for which the seabed consists of fine-grained, muddy sediments. In this study, a Bayesian framework is applied to underwater noise recorded by IVAR from a cargo ship traversing the central region of the SBCEX2017 area for the purpose of inversion to characterize sediment properties. The vector acoustic data are in the form of a bounded, nondimensional form known as circularity, a quantity that is independent of the ship noise-source spectrum and that can be interpreted as the normalized curl of active intensity. The inversion model space for the seabed consists of a low-compressional speed layer and underlying basement half-space, with each having compressional and shear components. The interpretative model for producing a replica of the data is based on the plane wave reflection coefficient for a layered, elastic seabed in conjunction with the depth-dependent Green’s function that is integrated in the complex wave number plane to obtain pressure and particle velocity fields. The small change in water depth between the location of the ship source and IVAR is addressed using adiabatic mode theory. The inversion results exhibit slow variation over the 20-min observation period, representing approximately 5 km of travel by the ship source.

Approximately six years of underwater noise data recorded from the Regional Cabled Array network are examined to study long-term trends. The data originate from station HYS14 located 87 km offshore of Newport, OR. The results indicate that the third-octave band level centered at 63 Hz and attributable to shipping activity is reduced in the spring of 2020 by about 1.6 dB relative to the mean of the prior five years, owing to the reduced economic activity initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are subtle, as the noise reduction is less than the typical seasonal fluctuation associated with warming ocean surface temperatures in the summer that reduces mode excitation support at typical ship source depths, causing a repeated annual level change on the order of 4 dB at shipping frequencies. Seasonality of the noise contribution near 20 Hz from fin whales is also discussed. Corroboration of a COVID-19 effect on shipping noise is offered by an analysis of automatic identification system shipping data and shipping container activity for Puget Sound, over the same six-year period, which shows a reduction in the second quarter of 2020 by ~19% and ~17%, respectively, relative to the mean of the prior five years.

Explosions from activities such as construction, demolition, and military activities are increasingly encountered in the underwater soundscape. However, there are few scientifically rigorous data on the effects of underwater explosions on aquatic animals, including fishes. Thus, there is a need for data on potential effects on fishes collected simultaneously with data on the received signal characteristics that result in those effects. To better understand potential physical effects on fishes, Pacific sardines (Sardinops sagax) were placed in cages at mid-depth at distances of 18 to 246 m from a single mid-depth detonation of C4 explosive (4.66 kg net explosive weight). The experimental site was located in the coastal ocean with a consistent depth of approximately 19.5 m. Following exposure, potential correlations between blast acoustics and observed physical effects were examined. Acoustic metrics were calculated as a function of range, including peak pressure, sound exposure level, and integrated pressure over time. Primary effects related to exposure were damage to the swim bladder and kidney. Interestingly, the relative frequency of these two injuries displayed a non-monotonic dependence with range from the explosion in relatively shallow water. A plausible explanation connecting swim bladder expansion with negative pressure as influenced by bottom reflection is proposed.

The Intensity Vector Autonomous Recorder (IVAR) simultaneously measures acoustic particle velocity and pressure. IVAR was deployed during the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment (SBCEX) with the primary objective to study sound propagation in fine-grained, muddy sediments. In this study a Bayesian inversion framework is applied to ship underwater noise recorded by IVAR. The data are relative phase of pressure and vertical particle velocity, a quantity that is independent of the ship noise source spectrum. Inversion estimates for the sediment layer and underlying basement properties are in agreement with other reports from SBCEX.

The Intensity Vector Autonomous Recorder (IVAR) is a system that records four coherent channels of acoustic data continuously: one channel for acoustic pressure and three channels associated with a triaxial accelerometer from which acoustic particle velocity is obtained. IVAR recorded the vector acoustic field in broadband signals originating from Signal, Underwater Sound (SUS) (Mk-64) charges deployed at 5–13-km range from the fixed IVAR site (mean depth 74.4 m) as part of the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment (SBCEX) designed to study the acoustics of fine-grained muddy sediments. Sufficient geometric dispersion at these ranges permitted unambiguous identification of up to four modes as a function of frequency for frequencies less than 80 Hz. From time–frequency analysis of the dispersed arrivals, a single mode (n) and single-frequency (f_i) properties are identified at peaks in the narrowband scalar field, with time dependence corresponding to mode group speed. At these time–frequency addresses, four quantities derived from the vector acoustic measurements are formed by coherent combination of pressure and velocity channels: first, modal phase speed; second, circularity, a measure of the normalized curl of active intensity; third, depth-dependent mode speed of energy; and fourth, vertical component of reactive intensity normalized by scalar intensity. A means to compute these quantities theoretically is provided, and a comparison of model results based on a notional geoacoustic representation for the SBCEX experimental area consisting of a single low-speed mud layer over a half-space area versus a Pekeris representation based on the same half-space shows a striking difference, with the field observations also clearly at variance with the Pekeris representation. A fundamental property of mode 2, observed at the IVAR location, is a change in sign for circularity and vertical reactive intensity near 37 Hz that is posited as a constraint observation for mode 2 that must be exhibited by any geoacoustic model that includes a low-speed mudlike layer applied to this location.

On Nov. 15, 2017, an intense acoustic event coincident with the disappearance of the Argentine navy submarine, ARA (Armada Argentina) San Juan, was recorded on the hydroacoustic network established to enforce compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Analysis by Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) scientists, based on two hydroacoustic and one seismic detection, provided a likely origin within an error ellipse of 19 km by 12 km; analysis based solely on the main arrival detected at the two hydroacoustic stations gave an error ellipse of ~500 km by ~25 km [Nielsen, Zampolli, Le Bras, Mialle, Bittner, Poplavskiy, Rozhkov, Haralabus, Tomuta, Bell, and Grenard, in European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vol. 20, EGU2018-18559 (2018)]. The large major axis depends on uncertainty in establishing the event time, while the minor axis depends on precision in the ocean state estimate used to model propagation speed. This paper demonstrates how three-dimensional (3-D) propagation features can also be used in source triangulation, in particular when no seismic detection is available. A mode-based 3-D propagation model is implemented to reconstruct the propagation path of a 3-D arrival bathymetrically refracted from the continental slope. This additional arrival provides a third (virtual) station to decouple the location and time of the event and triangulate the event. This improvement is commensurate with the CTBTO analysis, but does not rely on the additional seismic station detection.

As a part of the 2013 Targets and Reverberation Experiment (TREX13), measurements of the acoustic field generated by a source used in midfrequency (1.8–3.6 kHz) reverberation experiments are studied at 5 and 6 km range. The TREX13 reverberation sources were placed off the coast of Panama City, FL, USA, in waters ~20 m deep, and data discussed here are from a 2-h period in the late afternoon on April 28, 2013. The observed coda of the source signal is partitioned into an initial primary arrival, and a distinct second arrival delayed by roughly 2 s. Characteristics of the two arrivals are studied in terms of the effective number of modes, interference features, and the direction of acoustic intensity, which was directly measured by a vector sensor located at 5 km range. A shift in frequency within the primary arrival is observed over the 2-h measurement period. Frequency shifts are related to a change in range of dislocations, defined as points of complete destructive interference in the acoustic field, that modulate with tidal variation in the sound-speed profile. Precise frequencies are identified with the vector property called circularity, a nondimensional measure of acoustic intensity curl, that is maximal within the vortex-like intensity field within a dislocation. Using the waveguide invariant β, the frequency shift is used to estimate the tidal change in the thermocline depth. These interference features are absent in the second arrival, which is postulated to be an acoustic path horizontally refracted by the gently sloping bathymetry (~0.4°) forming the coastal environment. A description of the refraction using modal rays is developed, and the transition of the mode from being trapped to leaky is handled as a transition to a virtual mode near the cutoff depth. Models of the primary and refracted arrivals are presented to support the conclusions.

Underwater noise from impact pile driving is studied through measurements using a vertical line array (VLA) placed at range 120 m from the pile source (water depth 7.5 m) over which bathymetry varied gradually increasing to depth 12.5 m at the VLA. The data were modeled assuming the pile impact produces a radial expansion that acts as sound source and propagates along the pile at supersonic speed. This leads to the conceptualization of the pile as a discrete, vertical line source for which frequency- and source-depth-dependent complex phasing is applied. Dominant features of the pressure time series versus measurement depth are reproduced in modeled counterparts that are linearly related. These observations include precursor arrivals for which arrival timing depends on hydrophone depth and influence of a sediment sound speed gradient on precursor amplitude. Spatial gradients of model results are taken to obtain estimates of acoustic particle velocity and vector intensity for which active intensity is studied in the time domain. Evaluation of energy streamlines based on time-integrated active intensity, and energy path lines based on instantaneous (or very-short-time integrated) active intensity reveal interesting structure in the acoustic field, including an inference as to the source depth of the precursor.

As part of the 2013 Target and REverberation eXperiment (TREX13), which took place off the coast of Panama City, FL, USA, directional wave measurements were made using two directional wave buoys separated in range by 5 km. The purpose of these measurements was to provide environmental support for the interpretation of reverberation and other active sonar experiments that were part of TREX13. During the measurement period between April 22 and May 17, 2013 exclusive of a period of nondeployment May 2–6, 2013, the root-mean-square (rms) wave height H varied over the range 0.03–0.33 m, holding a median value of 0.11 m; the wind speed varied from ~1 to 10 m/s with a median value of 4.7 m/s, and the rms wave slope averaged over all directions varied from 0.01 to 0.10 with median value of 0.05. These parameters are placed in the context of midfrequency sonar propagation and reverberation prediction. One buoy operated the entire period, with the second buoy operating simultaneously over a four-day overlap period, during which there was excellent agreement between H and wave slope in two orthogonal directions, a finding relevant to describing the sea surface as spatially invariant, or homogeneous, for purposes of sonar modeling. The analysis of energy-weighted mean direction illustrates how the wave field was generally composed of a mixture of swell and wind-generated waves; in cases of purely wind-generated waves the effect of a limited fetch was also shown.

Within an underwater acoustic waveguide, the interference among multipath arrivals causes a phase difference in orthogonal components of the particle velocity. When two components of the particle velocity are not in phase, the fluid particles follow an elliptical trajectory. This property of the acoustic field can be readily detected by a vector sensor. A non-dimensional vector quantity, the degree of circularity, is used to quantify how much the trajectory resembles a circle. In this paper, vector sensormeasurements collected during the 2013 Target and Reverberation Experiment are used to demonstrate the effect of multipath interference on the degree of circularity. Finally, geoacoustic properties representing the sandy sediment at the experimental site are inverted by minimization of a cost function, which quantifies the deviation between the measured and modeled degree of circularity.

Underwater noise from vibratory pile driving was observed using a vertical line array placed at range 16 m from the pile source (water depth 7.5 m), and using single hydrophones at range 417 m on one transect, and range 207 and 436 m on another transect running approximately parallel to a sloping shoreline. The dominant spectral features of the underwater noise are related to the frequency of the vibratory pile driving hammer (typically 15–35 Hz), producing spectral lines at intervals of this frequency. The mean-square pressure versus depth is subsequently studied in third-octave bands. Depth and frequency variations of this quantity observed at the vertical line array are well modeled by a field consisting of an incoherent sum of sources distributed over the water column. Adiabatic mode theory is used to propagate this field to greater ranges and model the observations made along the two depth-varying transects. The effect of shear in the seabed, although small, is also included. Bathymetric refraction on the transect parallel to the shoreline reduced mean-square pressure levels at the 436-m measurement site.

Results of an experiment to measure vertical spatial coherence from acoustic paths interacting once with the sea surface but at perpendicular azimuth angles are presented. The measurements were part of the Shallow Water 2006 program that took place off the coast of New Jersey in August 2006. An acoustic source, frequency range 6–20 kHz, was deployed at depth 40 m, and signals were recorded on a 1.4-m long vertical line array centered at depth 25 m and positioned at range 200 m. The vertical array consisted of four omni-directional hydrophones and vertical coherences were computed between pairs of these hydrophones. Measurements were made over four source–receiver bearing angles separated by 90°, during which sea surface conditions remained stable and characterized by a root-mean-square wave height of 0.17 m and a mixture of swell and wind waves. Vertical coherences show a statistically significant difference depending on source–receiver bearing when the acoustic frequency is less than about 12 kHz, with results tending to fade at higher frequencies. This paper presents field observations and comparisons of these observations with two modeling approaches, one based on bistatic forward scattering and the other on a rough surface parabolic wave equation utilizing synthetic sea surfaces.

Elliptical particle motion, often encountered in acoustic fields containing interference between a source signal and its reflections, can be quantified by the degree of circularity, a vector quantity formulated from acoustic particle velocity, or vector intensity measurements. Acoustic analysis based on the degree of circularity is expected to find application in ocean waveguides as its spatial dependence relates to the acquisition geometry, water column sound speed, surface conditions, and bottom properties. Vector sensor measurements from a laboratory experiment are presented to demonstrate the depth dependence of both the degree of circularity and an approximate formulation based on vertical intensity measurements. The approximation is applied to vertical intensity field measurements made in a 2006 experiment off the New Jersey coast (in waters 80 m deep) to demonstrate the effect of sediment structure on the range dependence of the degree of circularity. The mathematical formulation presented here establishes the framework to readily compute the degree of circularity from experimental measurements; the experimental examples are provided as evidence of the spatial and frequency dependence of this fundamental vector property.

A signal reflected from a layered sea-bed contains information pertaining to the sediment properties. Typically, a signal intended to probe the sea-bed is designed to have a large bandwidth to allow for time separation of arrivals from the multiple layers. Depending on the geometry, it may impossible to avoid interference of these arrivals. The interference of these multiple arrivals does establish a pattern observable in the vector intensity. Measurements of the vertical complex acoustic intensity of a near-bottom source (~λ from the seafloor) collected off the coast of New Jersey in 2006 demonstrate the effect of a sub-bottom layer and the observable interference pattern between the first bottom reflection and the sub-bottom reflection. The spatial structure of the complex intensity can be used to infer bottom properties, which are in close agreement with a number of experimental studies at this location. The observable in the complex intensity can also be directly measured with a particle motion sensor. Parabolic equation simulations of the experimental site are used to demonstrate both the characteristic of the vector field and the sensitivity of these vector properties to changes in the sediment properties.

Underwater measurements of the acoustic intensity vector field can be provided by either spatially separated hydrophones or by a sensor measuring a property of particle motion, such as particle acceleration. These measurements are used to formulate the vector intensity as the product of pressure and particle velocity. The magnitude of the vector intensity is not necessarily equal to the plane-wave intensity (the mean square pressure divided by the density and sound-speed of the medium) which is often used to define pressure measurements in terms of intensity. In regions of strong destructive interference, the magnitude of the vector intensity may be greater than the plane-wave intensity. Measurements of an impulsive source on a vertical line array of pressure sensors spanning a shallow sea (60 m) off the coast of South Korea are presented to demonstrate properties of the complex intensity vector field in an ocean waveguide. Here, the vertical complex intensity is formulated by finite-difference methods. These vertical intensity observations in the ocean waveguide have implications on properties of the complete vector field. A laboratory experiment using a tri-axial particle acceleration sensor is presented to provide a connection between measurement of elliptical particle motion and complex intensity.

Acoustic intensity is a vector quantity described by collocated measurements of acoustic pressure and particle velocity. In an ocean waveguide, the interaction among multipath arrivals of propagating wavefronts manifests unique behavior in the acoustic intensity. The instantaneous intensity, or energy flux, contains two components: a propagating and non-propagating energy flux. The instantaneous intensity is described by the time-dependent complex intensity, where the propagating and non-propagating energy fluxes are modulated by the active and reactive intensity envelopes, respectively.

Properties of complex intensity are observed in data collected on a vertical line array during the transverse acoustic variability experiment (TAVEX) that took place in August of 2008, 17 km northeast of the Ieodo ocean research station in the East China Sea, 63 m depth. Parabolic equation (PE) simulations of the TAVEX waveguide supplement the experimental data set and provide a detailed analysis of the spatial structure of the complex intensity. A normalized intensity quantity, the pressure-intensity index, is used to describe features of the complex intensity which have a functional relationship between range and frequency, related to the waveguide invariant. The waveguide invariant is used to describe the spatial structure of intensity in the TAVEX waveguide using data taken at discrete ranges.

Contributions of airborne noise sources to the underwater noise field are the result of two acoustic fields: the transmitted and evanescent. The transmitted field can be represented by only those rays confined to a small cone (about 26 deg) where the reflection coefficient is real-valued. The evanescent field, which arises when rays are totally reflected from the surface, can also contribute to the underwater noise field. Unlike the transmitted field, the evanescent field does not propagate and decays exponentially with depth with a decay rate as a function of frequency. Determining the individual contribution of these two fields to the overall sound field is experimentally difficult to observe. One situation where these two fields can be observed individually occurs when an airplane flies overhead. The Doppler shift associated with tonal propeller noise is dependent on the acoustic path. The frequency separation of the two fields allows for separate analysis of the two fields. Measurements from aircraft (altitude 1000 ft) passing over a buoy equipped with a microphone 3 m above the surface and a hydrophone 2.5 m below the surface will be presented. Numerical simulations are presented along with the experimental observations.

Acoustic intensity in an ocean waveguide is described by the local pressure and particle velocity, both of which can be described as a sum of modes. Analysis of the interaction between these modal components gives insight into the formation of characteristic intensity structures, such as interference patterns. Observations of the modal structure of the pressure and vertical velocity in a shallow water waveguide are presented using experimental data from an experiment off Korean coastal waters, the transverse acoustic variability experiment (TAVEX) that took place in August of 2008 17 km northeast of the Ieodo weather station, in waters 62 m deep. Mode filtering is performed on a 16 element vertical array that spans the water column (3 m spacing) for broadband (imploding light bulb) sources detonated at ranges from 200 to 1000 m at 40 m depth. The vertical velocity field, determined through the finite-difference approximation, and the pressure field at 230 Hz are represented by six propagating modes and their corresponding modal amplitudes. The interaction of these modal components is analyzed and PE simulated data are presented for comparison. Nondimensional indices are formulated relating the modal components of vector intensity and their utility as field indicators will be discussed.

Vector sensor processing relies on the covariance matrix for both a single vector sensor and a larger matrix from a vector sensor array. The elements of these covariance matrices have physical interpretation in terms of complex intensity. The presence of reactive intensity on the array shows up in the off diagonal elements of the covariance matrix and has significant implications on direction of arrival (DOA) algorithms. Sources of reactive intensity in an underwater waveguide are dependent on the geometry of the system and fluctuations in these quantities affect the ability to increase the array aperture to better resolve arrival angles.