Acoustical oceanography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acoustical Oceanography is the use of underwater sound to study the sea, its boundaries and its contents.

Contents 1 History 2 Theory 3 Measurements 4 Applications 4.1 Depth sounding 4.2 Seabed classification 4.3 Marine biology 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The earliest and most widespread use of sound and sonar technology to study the properties of the sea is the use of an echo sounder to measure water depth. The development of high resolution sonar in the second half of the 20th Century made it possible to not just detect underwater objects but to classify them and even image them.

Important contributions to acoustical oceanography have been made by:

• Walter Munk
• Hank Medwin
• John L Spiesberger
• C C Leroy
• David E Weston

[edit] Theory

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

See Clay and Medwin ^[1]

[edit] Measurements

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

See Clay and Medwin ^[1]

[edit] Applications

Applications of acoustical oceanography include:

• fish population surveys
• classification of fish species and other biota
• rain rate measurement
• wind speed measurement
• water depth measurement
• seabed classification
• ocean acoustic tomography
• global thermometry
• monitoring of ocean-atmospheric gas exchange

[edit] Depth sounding

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Main article: echo sounder

[edit] Seabed classification

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] Marine biology

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Main article: Bioacoustics

The study of marine life, from microplankton to the blue whale, uses bioacoustics.^[2]

[edit] See also

• Acoustic

[edit] References

[edit] External links