Acoustically Mapping the Ocean

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Background

In recent decades, mapping the properties and dynamics of the ocean has been identified as a critical aspect to understanding the Earth’s climate system. With the onset of global hydrographic programs, such as WOCE, Argo and a recent wave of autonomous vehicles, the spatial and temporal resolution of measured oceanic fields has greatly improved. Nonetheless, in most cases in situ spatial sampling of the ocean remains on the order of 10s of kilometers and limited to depths of 2000 m. In particular, little is known about submesoscale processes (length scales of <10 km), which have recently emerged as a key uncertainty in ocean and climate studies. In order to augment and overcome these observational limitations, existing and developing acoustic techniques can be used.

A wide range of frequencies can be used to observe the ocean that yield unprecedented temporal and spatial scales. The highest frequencies, O(10-100) kHz, are used to map scattering from millimeter- to centimeter-scale objects such as plankton. Whilst frequencies of O(1) Hz can be used to determine property anomalies across entire ocean basins on time scales of minutes. Here, we focus on the frequency range of 10-100 Hz, which is commonly used in seismic reflection profiling. In the ocean, this frequency range detects changes in thermohaline finestructure with vertical and lateral resolutions of up to 10 m (in two, three-, and four-dimensions). The resultant high-resolution imagery provides detailed information about the dimensions and evolution of oceanic processes that occur between the mixed layer and the seafloor and across sections of hundreds of kilometers. Thus, this technique, often called Seismic Oceanography, is well-suited to overcoming current observational limitations that hamper our understanding of the ocean. Yet, the greatest strength of Seismic Oceanography is the synergy between its imaging capabilities and the ability to extract attributes such as temperature, salinity, diffusivity estimates and dynamical measurements.

The techniques of Seismic Oceanography are now mature enough to go beyond the image and properly capitalize on quantifiable attributes. We are interested in a variety of topics, including, but not limited to:
- (i) the life, energy cycles and roles of submesoscale and mesoscale processes,
- (ii) diagnosing mixing regimes,
- (ii) efforts to integrate remote and in situ datasets with high-resolution numerical models.

We particularly encourage submissions that promote the development of a strong community and advance collaboration across the physical oceanography and acoustic communities (e.g. code sharing; collaborative hypothesis formation; data integration efforts). We also strongly encourage submissions from other acoustic techniques and technology including tomography, sonar and high-frequency acoustics.

Keywords: active acoustics, physical oceanography

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