Modeling of shallow water ambient noise based on adiabatic mode theory

State-of-the-Art noise prediction has been used to model noise emissions from industrial facilities, shipping activity in underwater environment to estimate noise level contours beyond the source area, and to determine specific impacts at potentially sensitive receptors, including marine mammals, etc. This paper presents the ambient noise modeling using adiabatic mode theory as acoustic propagation model to evaluate the noise statistics including temporal coherence and spatial variability offshore western Taiwan. In this model, the ocean model (Taiwan Coastal Ocean Nowcast/Forecast System, TCONFS, formulated on the basis of the Princeton Ocean Model) generating time varying/spatial dependent temperature profiles for water column variability, and geo-acoustic database are used as environmental inputs to this model. The modeling results demonstrate the temporal/spatial variability induced by time varying ocean model output, manifested by measured data. (This work is supported by National Science Council of Taiwan).