Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak

Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2009.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hornick, Heather René
Other Authors: James Lynch.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55299
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author Hornick, Heather René
author2 James Lynch.
author_facet James Lynch.
Hornick, Heather René
author_sort Hornick, Heather René
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2009.
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spelling mit-1721.1/552992019-04-12T09:51:52Z Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak Hornick, Heather René James Lynch. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mechanical Engineering. /Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Underwater acoustics Sound Speed Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2009. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-141). A confluence of several coastal oceanographic features creates an acoustically interesting region with high variability along the New England Shelfbreak. Determining the effect of the variability on acoustic propagation is critical for sonar systems. In the Nantucket Shoals area of the Middle Atlantic Bight, two experiments, the New England Shelfbreak Tests (NEST), were conducted in May and June, 2007 and 2008, to study this variability. A comprehensive climatology of the region along with the experimental data provided detailed information about the variability of the water column, particularly the temperature and sound speed fields. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of the ocean sound speed field defined a set of perturbations to the background sound speed field for each of the NEST Scanfish surveys. Attenuation due to bottom sediments is the major contributor of transmission loss in the ocean. In shallow water, available propagation paths most often include bottom interaction. Perturbations in the ocean sound speed field can cause changes in the angle of incidence of sound rays with the bottom, which can result in changes to the amount of sound energy lost to the bottom. In lieu of complex transmission loss models, the loss/bounce model provides a simpler way to predict transmission loss changes due to perturbations in the background sound speed field in the ocean. Using an acoustic wavenumber perturbation method, sound speed perturbations, defined by the ocean EOF modes, are translated into a change in the horizontal wavenumber, which in turn changes the modal angle of incidence. (cont.) The loss/bounce model calculates the loss of sound energy (dB) per bottom bounce over a given distance based on the change in angle of incidence. Evaluated using experimental data from NEST, the loss/bounce model provided accurate predictions of changes to transmission loss due to perturbations of the background sound speed field. by Heather René Hornick. S.M. 2010-05-27T14:13:14Z 2010-05-27T14:13:14Z 2009 2009 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55299 613216578 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 141 p. application/pdf n-usn-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Underwater acoustics
Sound Speed
Hornick, Heather René
Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak
title Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak
title_full Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak
title_fullStr Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak
title_full_unstemmed Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak
title_short Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak
title_sort environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the new england shelfbreak
topic Mechanical Engineering.
/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Underwater acoustics
Sound Speed
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55299
work_keys_str_mv AT hornickheatherrene environmentalanalysisandpredictionoftransmissionlossintheregionofthenewenglandshelfbreak