Abstract:

An important part of the general problem of the Arctic climate change is the monitoring of the Fram Strait, which lies between Greenland and Spitsbergen. For this reason, it is reasonable to apply acoustic methods which are proven to be effective in acoustic ocean thermometry, acoustic tomography, etc. Knowledge of the main peculiarities of sound signal propagation in this region is needed to estimate the feasibility of applying remote acoustic methods. Due to the extremely complex propagation environment, strong mode coupling takes place which leads to mode repopulation (variation of the modal structure of a sound field with distance). The application of a parametric array as a mode selective source could be useful in this case providing better spatial resolution of the probing area. The results of numerical simulation of parametric array performance in the Fram Strait environment is considered in the present paper.