Effect of Mesoscale eddies on underwater sound propagation

The effects of sound speed variables induced by an anticyclonic eddy and a field of three cyclonic eddies on long-range sound propagation are investigated respectively. A deep-sea analytical eddy model [Henrick RF, Siegmann WL, Jacobson MJ. General analysis of ocean eddy effects for sound transmission applications. J Acoust Soc Am 1977;62:860–870] is used to determined sound speed distributions produced by warm-core ring in the southwest of South China Sea. Furthermore, the above analytical eddy model is generalize to include the azimuth angle variation and is used to determined sound speed distributions produced by Gulf Stream rings with different strengths. The theoretical temperature fluctuations induced by the warm eddy and a eddy field including three cyclonic eddies agree qualitatively with the in situ investigation data. The transmission loss of acoustic energy through the cross section of the warm-core ring center and three cyclonic eddy centers is simulated using 2-D parabolic-equation (PE) numerical modeling. It is found that the acoustic field has a significant change with variation of the location of SOFAR axis in the presence of the warm eddy and three cyclonic eddies comparing with the scenario of no eddies. When the source is located in the outside of the warm-core eddy and three cyclonic eddies respectively, and the receiver is located in outside of the eddy, the transmission loss as a function of range is investigated at different receive depth. It is shown that the changes of transmission loss caused by the warm-core eddy and three cyclonic eddies are as much as 20 dB than that of no-eddy situation. In the case of three cyclonic eddies, the largest discrepancy of transmission loss is about 40 dB near the range of 45 km for a 25-Hz source being located at a depth of 1500 m.