Publication Date:
2016-11-23
Description:
In April 1994, coherent acoustic transmissions were
propagated across the entire Arctic basin for the first time.
This experiment, known as the Transarctic Acoustic Propagation
Experiment (TAP), was designed to determine the feasibility of
using these signals to monitor changes in Arctic Ocean temper-
ature and changes in sea ice thickness and concentration. CW
and maximal length sequences (MLS) were transmitted from the
source camp located north of the Svalbard Archipelago 1000
km to a vertical line array in the Lincoln Sea and 2600 km
to a two-dimensional horizontal array and a vertical array in
the Beaufort Sea. TAP demonstrated that the 19.6-Hz 195-dB
(251-W) signals propagated with both sufficiently low loss and
high phase stability to support the coherent pulse compression
processing of the MLS and the phase detection of the CW signals.
These yield time-delay measurements an order of magnitude
better than what is required to detect the estimated 80-ms/year
changes in travel time caused by interannual and longer term
changes in Arctic Ocean temperature. The TAP data provided
propagation loss measurements to compare with the models to
be used for correlating modal scattering losses with sea ice
properties for ice monitoring. The travel times measured in TAP
indicated a warming of the Atlantic layer in the Arctic of close
to 0.4 degrees, which has been confirmed by direct measurement
from icebreakers and submarines, demonstrating the utility of
acoustic thermometry in the Arctic. The unique advantages of
acoustic thermometry in the Arctic and the importance of climate
monitoring in the Arctic are discussed. A four-year program,
Arctic Climate Observations using Underwater Sound is underway to carry
out the first installations of sources and receivers in the Arctic
Ocean. ACOUS is a joint project being executed under a bilateral
memorandum of understanding with Russia and is part of the
Gore-Chernomyrdin (now Gore-Primakov) Commission, Science
and Technology Committee.
Type:
Article
,
PeerReviewed
Format:
text
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