Designing the ATOC global array

The Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate project (ATOC) is just beginning. The goal of the project is to determine over the course of a decade if the oceans are warming or cooling and if numerical models can be validated. Long range acoustic transmissions between various sources and receivers will be monitored to determine if travel times and the sound speed and temperature, change over these time scales. A good design of the global acoustic array will optimize the detection versus cost ratio and is therefore essential to the success of the project. It depends on a variety of factors including spatial structure of the expected signals, logistics and cost of cabled sources, number and distribution of receivers, to name a few. The subject of this paper is an interactive software package that is being constructed to assist in this global array design process