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Re: Hydrophones and depth

Subject: Re: Hydrophones and depth
From: "Mitch Hill" wa1ykn
Date: Thu May 10, 2012 1:02 pm ((PDT))
On 5/10/2012 3:45 PM, soundings23 wrote:
> Doing some more hydrophone recordings today. Just a thought ... does dept=
h affect the sound?  I'd kind of expect it too, at greater pressure I'd ima=
gine sound to travel differently in what is a denser medium (if that's the =
right way to describe it)?
>
> Tony
>
>
Fundamentally, depth alone does not affect sound, however there are some
unique effects of depth that can alter the path sound takes to get to
the hydrophone, primarily what is refereed to in oceanography as the
"Thermocline", a level at which temperature of the surface waters and
temperature of waters of the deep ocean go through a transition or
inversion and act as a mirror to sound.  This zone can be also used to
advantage as a channel that can carry underwater sound great distances.

However the thermocline is at greater depths than most of us need be
concerned about it, typically below 600 feet.

Another concern is the air/water interface which also acts as a mirror
to sound, as is a very flat clean bottom such as a sand flat which will
also act as a sound mirror.

--
--
Mitch Hill

(Sent from HP DV6T)







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