Peter F. Worcester

Barotropic and Baroclinic Tides in the Central North Pacific Ocean Determined from Long-Range Reciprocal Acoustic Transmissions

Abstract Travel times of reciprocal 1000-km range acoustic transmissions, determined from the 1987 Reciprocal Tomography Experiment, are used to study barotropic tidal currents and a large-scale, coherent baroclinic tide in the central North Pacific Ocean. The difference in reciprocal travel times determines the tidal currents, while the sum of reciprocal travel times determines the baroclinic tide displacement of isotachs (or equivalently, isotherms). The barotropic tidal current accounts for 90% of the observed differential travel time variance. The measured harmonic constants of the eight major tidal constituents of the barotropic tide and the constants determined from current meter measurements agree well with the empirical–numerical tidal models of Schwiderski and Cartwright et al. The amplitudes and phases of the first-mode baroclinic tide determined from sum travel times agree with those determined from moored thermistors and current meters. The baroclinic tidal signals are consistent with a large-...

A test of basin-scale acoustic thermometry using a large-aperture vertical array at 3250-km range in the eastern North Pacific Ocean

Broadband acoustic signals were transmitted during November 1994 from a 75-Hz source suspended near the depth of the sound-channel axis to a 700-m long vertical receiving array approximately 3250 km distant in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. The early part of the arrival pattern consists of raylike wave fronts that are resolvable, identifiable, and stable. The later part of the arrival pattern does not contain identifiable raylike arrivals, due to scattering from internal-wave-induced sound-speed fluctuations. The observed ray travel times differ from ray predictions based on the sound-speed field constructed using nearly concurrent temperature and salinity measurements by more than a priori variability estimates, suggesting that the equation used to compute sound speed requires refinement. The range-averaged ocean sound speed can be determined with an uncertainty of about 0.05 m/s from the observed ray travel times together with the time at which the near-axial acoustic reception ends, used as a surroga...

On equations for the speed of sound in seawater.

Long‐range acoustic transmissions made in conjunction with extensive environmental measurements and accurate mooring position determinations have been used to test the accuracy of equations used to calculate sound speed from pressure, temperature, and salinity. The sound‐speed field computed using the Del Grosso equation [V. A. Del Grosso, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 56, 1084–1091 (1974)] give predictions of acoustic arrival patterns which agree significantly better with the long‐range measurements than those computed using the Chen and Millero equation [C. Chen and F. J. Millero, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 62, 1129–1135 (1977)]. The predicted ray travel times and travel time error have been calculated using objectively mapped sound‐speed fields computed from CTD and XBT data. Using the measured and predicted ray travel times, a negligible correction to Del Grosso’s equation of 0.05±0.05 m/s at 4000‐m depth is calculated. Small errors of about 50 m in the GPS determination of mooring positions lends a depth‐independent ...

Comparisons of measured and predicted acoustic fluctuations for a 3250-km propagation experiment in the eastern North Pacific Ocean

During the Acoustic Engineering Test (AET) of the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) program, acoustic signals were transmitted from a broadband source with 75-Hz center frequency to a 700-m-long vertical array of 20 hydrophones at a distance of 3252 km; receptions occurred over a period of six days. Each received pulse showed early identifiable timefronts, followed by about 2 s of highly variable energy. For the identifiable timefronts, observations of travel-time variance, average pulse shape, and the probability density function (PDF) of intensity are presented, and calculations of internal-wave contributions to those fluctuations are compared to the observations. Individual timefronts have rms travel time fluctuations of 11 to 19 ms, with time scales of less than 2 h. The pulse time spreads are between 0 and 5.3 ms rms, which suggest that internal-wave-induced travel-time biases are of the same magnitude. The PDFs of intensity for individual ray arrivals are compared to log-normal and expone...

Interference Pattern and Propagation of the M2 Internal Tide South of the Hawaiian Ridge

Abstract Most of the M2 internal tide energy generated at the Hawaiian Ridge radiates away in modes 1 and 2, but direct observation of these propagating waves is complicated by the complexity of the bathymetry at the generation region and by the presence of interference patterns. Observations from satellite altimetry, a tomographic array, and the R/P FLIP taken during the Farfield Program of the Hawaiian Ocean Mixing Experiment (HOME) are found to be in good agreement with the output of a high-resolution primitive equation model, simulating the generation and propagation of internal tides. The model shows that different modes are generated with different amplitudes along complex topography. Multiple sources produce internal tides that sum constructively and destructively as they propagate. The major generation sites can be identified using a simplified 2D idealized knife-edge ridge model. Four line sources located on the Hawaiian Ridge reproduce the interference pattern of sea surface height and energy fl...

Tomographic Maps of the Ocean Mesoscale. Part 1: Pure Acoustics

Abstract A field test of ocean acoustic tomography was conducted in 1981 for a two month period in a 300 km square at 26°N, 70°W in the North Atlantic (just south of the MODE region). Nine acoustic deep-sea moorings with sea floor transponders for automated position keeping and with provisions for precise time keeping were set and recovered. From the measured travel times between moorings, various displays of the three-dimensional field of sound speed (closely related to temperature) have been obtained by inversion procedures. These procedures use historical ocean data as a reference, but all information from the in situ surveys has been withheld; the “pure” tomographic results were then compared to direct in situ observations. The tomographically derived spatial mean profile compares favorably to an equivalent profile from the in situ observations; both differ significantly from the historical average. Maps constructed at three day intervals for a two month period show a pattern of eddy structure in agre...

Multimegameter-range acoustic data obtained by bottom-mounted hydrophone arrays for measurement of ocean temperature

Acoustic signals transmitted from the ATOC source on Pioneer Seamount off the coast of California have been received at various sites around the Pacific Basin since January 1996. We describe data obtained using bottom-mounted receivers, including US Navy Sound Surveillance System arrays, at ranges up to 5 Mm from the Pioneer Seamount source. Stable identifiable ray arrivals are observed in several cases, but some receiving arrays are not well suited to detecting the direct ray arrivals. At 5-Mm range, travel-time variations at tidal frequencies (about 50 ms peak to peak) agree well with predicted values, providing verification of the acoustic measurements as well as the tidal model. On the longest and northernmost acoustic paths, the time series of resolved ray travel times show an annual cycle peak-to-peak variation of about 1 s and other fluctuations caused by natural oceanic variability. An annual cycle is not evident in travel times from shorter acoustic paths in the eastern Pacific, though only one realization of the annual cycle is available. The low-pass-filtered travel times are estimated to an accuracy of about 10 ms. This travel-time uncertainty corresponds to errors in range- and depth-averaged temperature of only a few millidegrees, while the annual peak-to-peak variation in temperature averaged horizontally over the acoustic path and vertically over the upper 1 km of ocean is up to 0.5/spl deg/C.

Measured wave‐front fluctuations in 1000‐km pulse propagation in the Pacific Ocean

A 1000‐km acoustical transmission experiment has been carried out in the North Pacific, with pulses broadcast between a moored broadband source (250‐Hz center frequency) and a moored sparse vertical line of receivers. Two data records are reported: a period of 9 days at a pulse rate of one per hour, and a 21‐h period on the seventh day at six per hour. Many wave‐front segments were observed at each hydrophone depth, and arrival times were tracked and studied as functions of time and depth. Arrivals within the final section of the pulse are not trackable in time or space at the chosen sampling rates, however. Broadband fluctuations, which are uncorrelated over 10‐min sampling and 60‐m vertical spacing, are observed with about 40 (ms)2 variance. The variance of all other fluctuations (denoted as low‐frequency) is comparable or smaller than the broadband value; this low‐frequency variance can be separated into two parts: a wave‐front segment displacement (with vertical correlation length greater than 1 km) t...

North pacific acoustic laboratory

A series of long-range acoustic propagation experiments have been conducted in the North Pacific Ocean during the last 15 years using various combinations of low-frequency, wide-bandwidth transmitters and horizontal and vertical line array receivers, including a 2-dimensional array with a maximum vertical aperture of 1400 m and a horizontal aperture of 3600 m. These measurements were undertaken to further our understanding of the physics of low-frequency, broadband propagation and the effects of environmental variability on signal stability and coherence. In this volume some of the results are presented. In the present paper the central issues these experiments have addressed are briefly summarized.

Reciprocal acoustic transmissions: Instrumentation for Mesoscale monitoring of ocean currents

By simultaneously transmitting acoustic pulses in opposite directions between two points in midocean, one can separate the effects of ocean currents on acoustic propagation from the effects of sound-speed structure. Reciprocal acoustic transmissions can therefore be used to measure ocean currents. Acoustic transceivers have been designed and built to measure the mean currents between two points separated by 300 km. The equipment functioned satisfactorily during a sbort test conducted during 1983. Preliminary analysis of that experiment has yielded differential travel times that appear reasonable, but more work is required to relate the differential travel times to meaningful ocean-current estimates.