Abstract:
Signals were recorded at a site off the New Zealand coast during the 1994 ATOC Acoustic Engineering Test (AET) using a single hydrophone at the SOFAR axis suspended from a drifting sonobuoy. The receptions recorded were limited to a 2-day period due to weather and logistic constraints, but those analyzed showed considerable variability in structure from transmission to transmission. This path is particularly interesting because of its length (10 Mm) and its transequatorial nature. A moored, autonomous system was deployed in early 1996 off the New Zealand coast to acquire data over several months to investigate signal variability further. The source was on the Pioneer Seamount, and the single hydrophone moored at the SOFAR axis channel depth. These data and their analysis will be presented and discussed.