North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory: Deep Water Acoustic Propagation in the Philippine Sea

Abstract : The North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory (NPAL) program is intended to improve our understanding of (i) the basic physics of low-frequency, broadband propagation in deep water, including the effects of oceanographic variability on signal stability and coherence, (ii) the structure of the ambient noise field in deep water at low frequencies, and (iii) the extent to which acoustic methods, together with other measurements and coupled with ocean modeling, can yield estimates of the time-evolving ocean state useful for acoustic predictions. The goal is to determine the fundamental limits to signal processing in deep water imposed by ocean processes, enabling advanced signal processing techniques to capitalize on the three-dimensional character of the sound and noise fields.