Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
For many applications of sonar the speed of sound can be assumed to be an average speed of 1500 meters per second. However, the speed of sound in seawater can vary from 1440 to 1570 meters per second. [1] An example of a sound velocity probe – the Teledyne Odom Digibar Pro
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. At 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound in air, is about 343 m/s (1,125 ft/s; 1,235 km/h; 767 mph; 667 kn), or 1 km in 2.91 s or one mile in 4.69 s.
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) [2] is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances , communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water, such as other vessels.
Sonar systems are generally used underwater for range finding and detection. Active sonar emits an acoustic signal, or pulse of sound, into the water. The sound bounces off the target object and returns an echo to the sonar transducer. Unlike active sonar, passive sonar does not emit its own signal, which is an advantage for military vessels.
The speed of sound will vary slightly depending on temperature, pressure and salinity; and for precise applications of echosounding, such as hydrography, the speed of sound must also be measured, typically by deploying a sound velocity probe in the water. Echo sounding is a special purpose application of sonar used to locate the bottom.
Further down the water column, sound speed also decreases as temperature decreases in the ocean thermocline, and sound speed also decreases. At a certain point, however, the effect of depth, i.e., pressure, begins to dominate, and the sound speed increases to the ocean floor. [9] Also visible in figure 1 is a common feature in sound speed ...
An acoustic wave is a mechanical wave that transmits energy through the movements of atoms and molecules. Acoustic waves transmit through fluids in a longitudinal manner (movement of particles are parallel to the direction of propagation of the wave); in contrast to electromagnetic waves that transmit in transverse manner (movement of particles at a right angle to the direction of propagation ...