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The three-dimensional (3D) propagation effects of horizontal refraction and diffraction were measured on a tetrahedral hydrophone array deployed near the coast of Block Island, RI. Linear frequency modulated chirp signals, centered at 1 kHz with a 400 Hz bandwidth, were transmitted from a ship moving out of the acoustic shadow zone blocked by the island from the perspective of the hydrophone array. The observed shadow zone boundary was consistent with the prediction made by a 3D sound propagation model incorporating high-resolution bathymetry and realistic sound speed obtained from a data-assimilated regional ocean model. The 3D modal ray calculation provided additional insight into the frequency dependence of the signal spreading. This analysis found that the modes at higher frequencies can propagate closer to the coast of the island with shallower modal cutoff depths, where the sound energy penetrates the sloping seafloor at supercritical incidence. The evidence of horizontal caustics of the sound was shown in the parabolic equation and modal ray models by comparing to the arrival pattern observed in the data. The arrival angle measurements on the tetrahedral array show the complex propagation patterns, including the diffracted energy in the island shadow and acoustic energy refracted away from the island.

Impact pile driving creates intense, impulsive sound that radiates into the surrounding environment. Piles driven vertically into the seabed generate an azimuthally symmetric underwater sound field whereas piles driven on an angle will generate an azimuthally dependent sound field. Measurements were made during pile driving of raked piles to secure jacket foundation structures to the seabed in waters off the northeastern coast of the U.S. at ranges between 500 m and 15 km. These measurements were analyzed to investigate variations in rise time, decay time, pulse duration, kurtosis, and sound received levels as a function of range and azimuth. Variations in the radiated sound field along opposing azimuths resulted in differences in measured sound exposure levels of up to 10 dB and greater due to the pile rake as the sound propagated in range. The raked pile configuration was modeled using an equivalent axisymmetric FEM model to describe the azimuthally dependent measured sound fields. Comparable sound level differences in the model results confirmed that the azimuthal discrepancy observed in the measured data was due to the inclination of the pile being driven relative to the receiver.

The three-dimensional Monterey-Miami parabolic equation model is used to simulate a nonlinear internal wave (NIW) crossing the sound field in a shallow water environment. The impetus for this research stems from acoustic measurements taken during the Shallow Water '06 (SW06) field experiment, where a NIW traversed the water column such that soliton wavecrests were nearly parallel to the source-receiver path. Horizontal refraction effects are important in this scenario. A sound speed profile adapted from experimental SW06 data is used to simulate the NIW, assuming variations along the wavecrests (e.g., curvature) are negligible. Broadband and modal energy metrics show acoustic fluctuations due to internal wave activity. Repeated model runs simulate the NIW crossing the parabolic equation (PE) field over space and time. Statistical analysis shows the PE data are best fit by a lognormal distribution but tends to an exponential distribution during certain scenarios. Small angle differences between the acoustic track and the propagating NIW cause substantial differences in energy distribution throughout the PE field. While refraction effects due to the leading edge of the NIW's arrival are important in all cases, the impacts of focusing and defocusing in the perfectly parallel case dominate the field fluctuations. In the non-parallel case, the strong fluctuations introduced by the passage of the NIW are of similar order to the refraction off the leading edge.

A three-dimensional underwater sound propagation model with realistic ocean environmental conditions has been created for assessing the impacts of noise from offshore wind farm construction and operation. This model utilizes an existing accurate numerical solution scheme to solve the three-dimensional Helmholtz wave equation, and it is compared and validated with acoustic transmission data between 750 and 1250 Hz collected during the development of the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF), Rhode Island. The variability of underwater sound propagation conditions has been investigated in the BIWF area on a temporal scale of months and a spatial scale of kilometers. This study suggests that future offshore wind farm developments can exploit the seasonal variability of underwater sound propagation for mitigating noise impact by scheduling wind farm construction during periods of high acoustic transmission loss. Discussions on other applications of soundscape prediction, planning, and management are provided.

This paper presents single receiver geoacoustic inversion of a combustive sound source signal, recorded during the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment on the New England Mud Patch, in an area where water depth is around 70 m. There are two important features in this study. First, it is shown that high-order modes can be resolved and estimated using warping (up to mode number 18 over the frequency band 20-440 Hz). However, it is not possible to determine mode numbers from the data, so that classical inversion methods that require mode identification cannot be applied. To solve this issue, an inversion algorithm that jointly estimates geoacoustic properties and identifies mode number is proposed. It is successfully applied on a range-dependent track, and provides a reliable range-average estimation of geoacoustic properties of the mud layer, an important feature of the seabed on the experimental area.

The Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation conducted a geoacoustic inverse experiment in the Mediterranean Sea in the summer of 2012. Among the objectives was to employ an autonomous underwater vehicle to collect acoustic data to invert for properties of the seafloor. Inversion results for the compression wave speed in the bottom and the source spectrum of the R/V Alliance during a close approach to the bottom moored vehicle are presented. The estimated wave speed was 1529 m/s (σ=10). The source spectrum of the Alliance was estimated across more than six octaves of frequency.

Combustive sound source (CSS) data collected on single hydrophone receiving units, in water depths ranging from 65 to 110 m, during the Shallow Water 2006 experiment clearly show modal dispersion effects and are suitable for modal geoacoustic inversions. CSS shots were set off at 26 m depth in 100 m of water. The inversions performed are based on an iterative scheme using dispersion-based short time Fourier transform in which each time-frequency tiling is adaptively rotated in the time-frequency plane, depending on the local wave dispersion. Results of the inversions are found to compare favorably to local core data.

The introduction of anthropogenic sound to coastal waters is a negative side effect of population growth. As noise from boats, marine construction, and coastal dredging increases, environmental and behavioral monitoring is needed to directly assess the effect these phenomena have on marine animals. Acoustic recordings, providing information on ambient noise levels and transient noise sources, were made in two manatee habitats: grassbeds and dredged habitats. Recordings were made over two 6-month periods from April to September in 2003 and 2004. Noise levels were calculated in one-third octave bands at nine center frequencies ranging from 250 Hz to 64 kHz. Manatee habitat usage, as a function of noise level, was examined during four time periods: morning, noon, afternoon, and night. Analysis of sightings data in a variety of grassbeds of equal species composition and density indicate that manatees select grassbeds with lower ambient noise for frequencies below 1 kHz. Additionally, grassbed usage was negatively correlated with concentrated boat presence in the morning hours; no correlation was observed during noon and afternoon hours. This suggests that morning boat presence and its associated noise may affect the use of foraging habitat on a daily time scale.

The Florida manatee is regularly exposed to high volumes of vessel traffic and other human-related noise because of its coastal distribution. Quantifying specific aspects of the manatee's acoustic environment will allow for a better understanding of how these animals respond to both natural and human-induced changes in their environment. Transmission loss measurements were made in 24 sampling sites that were chosen based on the frequency of manatee presence. The Monterey-Miami Parabolic Equation model was used to relate environmental parameters to transmission loss in two extremely shallow water environments: seagrass beds and dredged habitats. Model accuracy was verified by field tests at all modeled sites. Results indicated that high-use grassbeds have higher levels of transmission loss for frequencies above 2 kHz compared to low-use sites of equal food species composition and density. This also happens to be the range of most efficient sound propagation inside the grassbed habitat and includes the dominant frequencies of manatee vocalizations. The acoustic environment may play a more important role in manatee grassbed selection than seagrass coverage or species composition, as linear regression analysis showed no significant correlation between usage and either total grass coverage, individual species coverage, or aerial pattern.

This article discusses inversions for bottom geoacoustic properties using broadband acoustic signals obtained from explosive sources. Two different inversion schemes for estimating the compressional wave speeds and attenuation are presented in this paper. In addition to these sediment parameters, source-receiver range is also estimated using the arrival time data. The experimental data used for the inversions are SUS charge explosions acquired on a vertical hydrophone array during the Shelf Break Primer Experiment conducted south of New England in the Middle Atlantic Bight in August 1996. The modal arrival times are extracted using a wavelet analysis. In the first inversion scheme, arrival times corresponding to various modes and frequencies from 10 to 200 Hz are used for the inversion of compressional wave speeds. A hybrid inversion scheme based on a genetic algorithm (GA) is used for the inversion. In an earlier study, Potty et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108(3), 973-986 (2000)] have used this hybrid scheme in a range-independent environment. In the present study results of range-dependent inversions are presented. The sound speeds in the water column and bathymetry are assumed range dependent, whereas the sediment compressional wave speeds are assumed range independent. The variations in the sound speeds in the water column are represented using empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs). The replica fields corresponding to the unknown parameters were constructed using adiabatic theory. In the second inversion scheme, modal attenuation coefficients are calculated using modal amplitude ratios. The ratios of the modal amplitudes are also calculated using time-frequency diagrams. A GA-based inversion scheme is used for this search. Finally, as a cross check, the computed compressional wave speeds along with the modal arrival times were used to estimate the source-receiver range. The inverted sediment properties and ranges are seen to compare well with in situ measurements and historical data.

This article discusses inversions for bottom geoacoustic properties using broadband acoustic signals obtained from explosive sources. The experimental data used for the inversions are SUS charge explosions acquired on a vertical hydrophone array during the Shelf Break Primer Experiment conducted south of New England in the Middle Atlantic Bight in August 1996. The SUS signals were analyzed for their time-frequency behavior using wavelets. The group speed dispersion curves were obtained from the wavelet scalogram of the SUS signals. A genetic algorithm (GA) was used for the inversion of sound speeds in the water column and compressional wave speeds in the sediment layers. The variations in the sound speeds in the water column were represented using empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs). A range-independent normal mode routine was used to construct the replica fields corresponding to the parameters. Comparison of group speeds for modes 1 to 9 and for a range of frequencies 8 to 200 Hz was used to arrive at the best parameter fit. An efficient hybrid optimization scheme using the GA and a Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is presented. Linear perturbation methods were also used to "fine tune" the inversions and to obtain resolution and variance estimates. Analysis was also done to compute the degree of convergence of each of the parameters by explicitly calculating the Hessian matrices numerically. A posteriori estimation of mean and covariance was also done to obtain error estimates. Group speeds for the inverted sound speed fields provide an excellent match to the experimental data. The inverted sediment compressional speed profile compares well with in situ measurements.