Multipath variability due to the Gulf Stream

Also published as: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 69 (1981): 982-988A phase-coded signal with 64-ms resolution was transmitted at 10-min intervals for a 19-day period over two ~300-km ranges. The acoustic source was moored at 2000-m depth northwest of Bermuda. One receiver was moored at 2000-m depth to the northeast of the source and the other receiver was bottom mounted at ~1000- m depth near Bermuda. The large (~0.6 s) travel time change at the Bermuda receiver is probably due in large part to motion of the source mooring in the presence of currents. The multipath arrival pattern at the moored receiver undergoes significant modification due to the presence of a southern meander of the Gulf Stream which intersects this transmission path.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-77-C-0196 and NORDA contract N00014-79-C-0071

Sound channel propagation through eddies southeast of the Gulf Stream

Also published as: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 68 (1980): 1750-1767Acoustical signals at 270 Hz from SOFAR floats drifting in the region southeast of the Gulf Stream were recorded during most of 1975 from a near axis sound channel hydrophone near Bermuda. The amplitude levels received exhibit a large increase (12–18 dB) commencing about 24 July, following a long period (March to July) of relatively lower peak level amplitudes. A major part of the increase can be attributed to the influence of a large cyclonic eddy (Gulf Stream ring) that passed slowly between the SOFAR floats and Bermuda. Such an eddy produces a large sound speed anomaly that extends to depths below the axis of the sound channel. On 24 July, two SOFAR floats were known to have approximately the same sound transmission path through the edge of the large eddy. The sound transmission peaks occur when no ocean eddy is between the SOFAR floats and the receiver. Their spacing shows they occur at regular refraction caustics in the sound channel. When the sound transmission path passes through an eddy, these transmission focal distances are shifted to greater range and the signal level may be greatly enhanced. The decrease of caustic peak intensities with range is 5 dB per double distance, and this agrees with theory. Several different levels of peak acoustic intensity occur and these result from two float depths and oceanic thermocline oscillations.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-74-C-0262; NR 083-004·

An acoustic navigation system

This report describes a system for underwater acoustic navigation developed, and in use, at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It includes a brief discussion of the electronic components, operation, mathematical analysis, and available computer programs. There is a series of supplementary Technical Memoranda containing more information on various aspects of the system. We believe that this kind of documentation is more flexible and better meets the needs of potential users than including all technical details in one large volume. These are not final or definitive reports; acoustic navigation capabilities will continue to evolve at W.H.O.I. for some time. Acoustic navigation provides a method of tracking a ship, and an underwater vehicle or instrument package (‘fish’), in the deep ocean. Acoustic devices attached to the ship and fish measure the length of time it takes a sound pulse to travel to acoustic transponders moored on the ocean floor. If the transponder positions and the average speed of sound are known, the ship or fish position can be found.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contracts N00014-71-C0284; NR 293-008 N00014-70-C0205; NR 263-103 and the National Science Foundation/International Decade of Ocean Exploration Grant GX-36024 and the Applied Physics Laboratory of The Johns Hopkins University Contract 372111

Optimizing Two-Color Semiconductor Nanocrystal Immunoassays in Single Well Microtiter Plate Formats

The simultaneous detection of two analytes, chicken IgY (IgG) and Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), in the single well of a 96-well plate is demonstrated using luminescent semiconductor quantum dot nanocrystal (NC) tracers. The NC-labeled antibodies were prepared via sulfhydryl-reactive chemistry using a facile protocol that took <3 h. Dose response curves for each target were evaluated in a single immunoassay format and compared to Cy5, a fluorophore commonly used in fluorescent immunoassays, and found to be equivalent. Immunoassays were then performed in a duplex format, demonstrating multiplex detection in a single well with limits of detection equivalent to the single assay format: 9.8 ng/mL chicken IgG and 7.8 ng/mL SEB

Overview of results from the Asian Seas International Acoustics Experiment in the East China Sea

Author Posting. © IEEE, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of IEEE for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 29 (2004): 920-928, doi:10.1109/JOE.2005.843159.The Asian Seas International Acoustics Experiment (ASIAEX) included two major field programs, one in the South China Sea and the other in the East China Sea (ECS). This paper presents an overview of research results from ASIAEX ECS conducted between May 28 and June 9, 2001. The primary emphasis of the field program was shallow-water acoustic propagation, focused on boundary interaction and geoacoustic inversion. The study area's central point was located at 29/spl deg/ 40.67'N, 126/spl deg/ 49.39'E, which is situated 500 km east of the Chinese coastline off Shanghai. The acoustic and supporting environmental measurements are summarized, along with research results to date, and references to papers addressing specific issues in more detail are given.This work was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research under Code 321 OA and by sponsoring agencies within China. Primary guidance and sponsorship for ASIAEX East China Sea came from the U.S. Office of Naval Research and significant financial support was also received from sponsoring agencies within China

A test of basin-scale acoustic thermometry using a large-aperture vertical array at 3250-km range in the eastern North Pacific Ocean

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 1999. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 105 (1999): 3185, doi:10.1121/1.424649.Broadband acoustic signals were transmitted during November 1994 from a 75-Hz source suspended near the depth of the sound-channel axis to a 700-m long vertical receiving array approximately 3250 km distant in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. The early part of the arrival pattern consists of raylike wave fronts that are resolvable, identifiable, and stable. The later part of the arrival pattern does not contain identifiable raylike arrivals, due to scattering from internal-wave-induced sound-speed fluctuations. The observed ray travel times differ from ray predictions based on the sound-speed field constructed using nearly concurrent temperature and salinity measurements by more than a priori variability estimates, suggesting that the equation used to compute sound speed requires refinement. The range-averaged oceansound speed can be determined with an uncertainty of about 0.05 m/s from the observed ray travel times together with the time at which the near-axial acoustic reception ends, used as a surrogate for the group delay of adiabatic mode 1. The change in temperature over six days can be estimated with an uncertainty of about 0.006 °C. The sensitivity of the travel times to ocean variability is concentrated near the ocean surface and at the corresponding conjugate depths, because all of the resolved ray arrivals have upper turning depths within a few hundred meters of the surface.This work was supported largely by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program through Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ~DARPA! Grant No. MDA972-93- 1-0003. Additional support was provided at SIO by the Office of Naval Research ~ONR! through Grant No. N00014- 97-1-0258. J. Colosi wishes to acknowledge support from an ONR Young Investigator Award, from the J. Lamar Worzel Assistant Scientist Fund, and from the Penzance Endowed Fund in support of scientific staff at WHOI

Undersea acoustic research

This is the final report of Contract N00014-77-C-0196 between the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Office of Naval Research for the contract period l January 1977 to 28 February 1983. This contract supported a broad program of research and development in underwater acoustics related to present and future Navy systems and requirements. The bulk of this contract research was conducted from 1977 to 1981, during which time the categories outlined below were all areas of active research. (Between 1981 and 1983 the contract remained in effect, although only in the area of bottom acoustics and at a reduced level.) The primary contract products are the published technical reports and papers listed below. These reports give detailed descriptions of the research work and the specialized techniques, methods, and instrumentation developed to support this research program. The final report contains a brief review of the program highlights and a bibliography of associated reports.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-77-C-0196

Arctic acoustic tomography : MIZEX 84

This is the final report of Contract N00014-84-C-0185 between the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Office of Naval Research for the contract period 1 January, 1984, to 28 February, 1985. This contract supported an experiment that was conducted in the Norwegian Sea during May and June of 1984 to assess the possibilities of using ocean acoustic tomography as a measuring tool in the Arctic. The object of the experiment was to identify and determine the temporal stability (coherence), and resolvability, of Arctic acoustic paths. Identification refers to the ability to match a pulse arrival with a particular ray path, primarily through computer modelling. Resolvable rays are those that arrive sufficiently far apart in time so as to be distinct and separable. In order to use tomography, rays must be identified, resolved and stable. Unlike the deep temperate ocean, where there are many wholly refracted paths, the upward refracting Arctic sound speed profile causes ray paths to reflect off the ice-covered surface of the permanent pack and the mixed ice-covered and ice-free surface of the marginal ice zones. The reflection process is time-varying and hence leads to resolvability, identification and stability questions that do not arise in the case of entirely refracted paths. A 224 Hz acoustic source was moored in an ice-free region. It transmitted phase coded, frequency stable signals to receivers fixed on the bottom and receivers drifting with the icepack at ranges of approximately 150 km. The received signals are to be analyzed with respect to identification, resolvability and stability issues. This contract covered the costs associated with installation and retrieval of the source and preliminary data reduction from the drifting and fixed hydrophones. Detailed data analysis costs are to be covered elsewhere. Nevertheless, preliminary analysis indicates that the received signals, particularly those from paths that interact with the ice-free surface, appear to have sufficient stability for tomographic purposes.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-84-C-0185

[Repair of a cable as it relates to the North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory]

The ultimate limits of long-range sonar are imposed by ocean variability and the ambient sound field. Scattering from internal waves limits the temporal and spatial coherence of the received signal. Low frequency noise is dominated by shipping and ultimately, by wave-breaking processes. The resulting granularity of the noise field can be exploited for detection and localization purposes. The ultimate objective is to understand the fundamental limits to signal processing imposed by these ocean processes, to enable advanced signal processing techniques, including matched field processing and other adaptive array processing methods, to capitalize on the three-dimensional character of the sound and noise fields. The objective of this research is to understand the basic physics of low frequency, broadband propagation and the effects of environmental variability on signal stability and coherence. In particular, it focuses on 3-D wave front coherence (horizontal, vertical, and temporal), on the details of signal energy redistribution through mode scattering, on signal and noise variability on ocean-basin scales, and on environmental processes such as internal waves that most affect long-range coherence

The responses of eight coral reef calcifiers to increasing partial pressure of CO2 do not exhibit a tipping point

The objective of this study was to investigate whether a tipping point exists in the calcification responses of coral reef calcifiers to CO2. We compared the effects of six partial pressures of CO2 (PCO2) from 28 Pa to 210 Pa on the net calcification of four corals (Acropora pulchra, Porites rus, Pocillopora damicornis, and Pavona cactus), and four calcified algae (Hydrolithon onkodes, Lithophyllum flavescens, Halimeda macroloba, and Halimeda minima). After 2 weeks of acclimation in a common environment, organisms were incubated in 12 aquaria for 2 weeks at the targeted PCO2 levels and net calcification was quantified. All eight species calcified at the highest PCO2 in which the calcium carbonate aragonite saturation state was ~1. Calcification decreased linearly as a function of increasing partial PCO2 in three corals and three algae. Overall, the decrease in net calcification as a function of decreasing pH was ~10% when ambient PCO2 (39 Pa) was doubled. The calcification responses of P. damicornis and H. macroloba were unaffected by increasing PCO2. These results are inconsistent with the notion that coral reefs will be affected by rising PCO2 in a response characterized by a tipping point. Instead, our findings combined among taxa suggest a gradual decline in calcification will occur, but this general response includes specific cases of complete resistance to rising PCO2. Together our results suggest that the overall response of coral reef communities to ocean acidification will be monotonic and inversely proportional to PCO2, with reef-wide responses dependent on the species composition of calcifying taxa