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The SOFAR channel (short for sound fixing and ranging channel), or deep sound channel (DSC), [1] is a horizontal layer of water in the ocean at which depth the speed of sound is at its minimum. The SOFAR channel acts as a waveguide for sound, and low frequency sound waves within the channel may travel thousands of miles before dissipating.
Output of a computer model of underwater acoustic propagation in a simplified ocean environment. A seafloor map produced by multibeam sonar. Underwater acoustics (also known as hydroacoustics) is the study of the propagation of sound in water and the interaction of the mechanical waves that constitute sound with the water, its contents and its boundaries.
The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel.
Ocean temperature varies with depth, but at between 30 and 100 meters there is often a marked change, called the thermocline, dividing the warmer surface water from the cold, still waters that make up the rest of the ocean.
Figure 1. Table 1's data in graphical format. Although given as a function of depth [note 1], the speed of sound in the ocean does not depend solely on depth.Rather, for a given depth, the speed of sound depends on the temperature at that depth, the depth itself, and the salinity at that depth, in that order.
Hydrophones are used to monitor the change in water pressure as sound waves propagate through the world's oceans. [9] Sound travels through 20 °C water at approximately 1482 meters per second, compared to the 332 m/s speed of sound through air. [10] [11] In the world's oceans, sound travels most efficiently at a depth of approximately 1000 meters.
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Seismic data record how the intensity of sound at each hydrophone changes with time. The time at which reflected sound arrives at a particular hydrophone depends on the horizontal distance between the hydrophone and the acoustic source, on the depth and shape of the reflecting boundary, and on the speed of sound in seawater.