A. Tolstoy
Integrated Performance Decisions, 4224 Waialae Ave., Ste. 5-260, Honolulu, HI 96816
B. Sotirin
NCCOSC-NRaD, San Diego, CA 92152
The tomographic determination of 4-D ocean sound speeds depends upon the nature of the system design, the analysis technique, and upon the resources used for generating and measuring the acoustic fields sampling the ocean region of interest. Matched-field tomography has recently been proposed as a high-resolution method potentially capable of synoptically imaging ocean regions as large as 1000 by 1000 km with rms accuracies less than 1 m/s [A. Tolstoy, J. Comput. Acoust. 2(1), 1--10 (1994)]. However, all results to date for the determination of deep ocean sound-speed profiles have been simulated. A major drawback to the actual implementation of the technique has been the requirement for several long (1000 m) vertical arrays, and these arrays have been neither affordable nor readily available. New technology is on the verge of producing relatively inexpensive, air-deployable, lightweight versions of these arrays suggesting that the MFP method may soon be testable. [Work supported by ONR.]