Reconstruction of small-scale flow dynamics by acoustical tomography

This paper has three specific objectives. The first is to summarize some of the recent theoretical developments regarding the measurement of fluid flows by acoustical tomography and to bring these results to the attention of oceanographic instrumentation specialists. The authors present a numerical simulation study of the reconstruction of both potential density (sound speed) and vorticity for a flow representative of a turbulent event in the upper ocean thermocline. Required measurement precision is discussed in the context of this example. Finally the authors discuss a simple measurement strategy for an oceanographic instrument. The overall goal of this work is to facilitate a dialogue between theoreticians working on inversion strategies and instrumentation experts that could result in a feasible design