The effect of ocean bottom variability on transmission loss and reverberation

The effect of range variability in shallow water transmission loss and reverberation has been studied as a function of sound speed profile and bathymetry, but little attention has been paid to the role of sediment variation. At the Target and Reverberation Experiment in 2013, detailed measurements of the ocean bottom coupled with an accurate and fully customizable finite element model of propagation make this analysis possible. In this study, normal incidence reflection coefficient measurements are used to determine density variations in the sediment. Two propagation models are developed with and without the variations. It is found that over 2 km for a frequency of 500 Hz, the variations have only a small effect on transmission loss and reverberation.