Methodology for the Practical Implementation of Monitoring Temperature Conditions over Vast Sea Areas Using Acoustic Thermometry

Abstract

The methodological and technical possibilities of monitoring temperature fields in the Sea of Japan by acoustic thermometry methods are presented. The proposed tomographic method for monitoring the dynamics and structure of water is based on the transmission and reception of complex phase-shift keyed acoustic signals on a diagnosed track with the determination of the travel time along various ray trajectories, followed by the sound speed (temperature) determination. The physical prerequisites for the practical implementation of thermometric studies at large distances are based on the acoustic “mudslide” effect—the phenomenon of the acoustic energy “injection“ from the near-bottom shelf area to the underwater sound channel of the deep ocean. Based on the Sea of Japan example, an acoustic thermometry system based on tomographic schemes with mobile and stationary hydroacoustic sources for promising work in the field of oceanic climatology is proposed. For numerical calculations of the signal propagation channels’ impulse responses between sources and receivers, a specialized database of oceanological information was formed for the northwestern part of the Sea of Japan. The database includes all available data from organizations in Russia, Japan, North Korea, the Republic of Korea, and the United States (23,247 stations completed from 1925 to 2017). In the example of the Sea of Japan, a high-precision acoustic thermometry system based on tomographic schemes with developed mobile and stationary hydroacoustic transmitting and receiving systems was proposed and experimentally tested.