Scope of the Acoustical Oceanography Technical Committee

The Acoustical Oceanography Technical Committee is responsible for representing and fostering Acoustical Oceanography within the Acoustical Society of America.

It is concerned with the development and use of acoustical techniques to measure and understand the physical, biological, geological and chemical parameters and processes of the sea.

Acoustical Methods

Several acoustical methods are used to study various of oceanographic processes, especially to measure associated parameters. Some of the processes subject to acoustical investigation are:

Biological Oceanography

• Detection, classification, and quantification of marine organisms
• Habitat characterization

Chemical Oceanography

• Variations in ocean chemistry (e.g., via frequency dependent absorption measurements)

Geological Oceanography

• Seafloor properties, both surficial and internal
• Sediment suspension and transport
• Underwater acoustic observations of earthquakes

Physical oceanography

• Air-sea interactions, e.g., air bubbles
• Turbulence and mixing
• Ocean surface waves
• Internal waves
• Solitary waves
• Fronts
• Circulation, e.g., mesoscale, gyre, and basin-scale dynamics
• Salinity and temperature structures

Approaches include

• ocean parameter estimation by acoustical methods
• remote sensing by active acoustic means
• acoustic imaging, inversion, and tomography
• developing acoustical instrumentation for oceanographic studies