Ted Farrell
Rigo Torres
Cola Atkinson
Greg Duckworth
BBN Syst. and Technol., 1300 N. 17th St., Ste. 1200, Arlington, VA 22209
A site selection study was performed to determine the best location for an environmental-acoustic measurement system to be deployed for two years in shallow water. The study searched for continental United States (CONUS) locations where the environmental parameters are sufficiently variable such that, over time, the acoustic environment at these locations will be similar to the environments found at multiple littoral regions of interest outside of CONUS. Shipping densities, sound-speed profiles, wind speed, rainfall, bathymetry, and sediment characteristics were investigated using a MATLAB[sup (registered)] based geographic information system. As part of the investigation, measures of variability were defined for each environmental variable. In addition, automatic classification of sound velocity profiles was implemented on more than 44 000 measured profiles from the areas of interest. The results of the study show that several CONUS areas have enough environmental variability to satisfy the requirements of a long-term measurement program. The system developed for this effort significantly reduced the time required to analyze and visualize large amounts of environmental data. The system also provides a means to couple environmental data into various acoustic models. [Work sponsored by ONR.]