Seabed acoustics of a sand ridge on the New Jersey continental shelf

Abstract

Acoustic measurements were made on a sand ridge on the New Jersey continental shelf. Data collected on two L arrays separated by 20km from a single multi-frequency tow suggest small horizontal environmental variability. Values for the sound speed structure of the seabed are extracted by first applying a geo-acoustic inversion method to broadband and narrowband acoustic data from short-range sources. Then, a parabolic equation algorithm is used to properly include the bathymetry and sub-bottom layering. Finally, the frequency dependence of the seabed attenuation is inferred by optimizing the model fit to long-range transmission loss data in the 50–3000Hz band.