DETERMINING AN OCEAN INTERNAL WAVE MODEL USING ACOUSTIC LOG-AMPLITUDEAND PHASE - A RYTOV INVERSE

The feasibility of inverting acoustic field statistics to obtain the p arameters of a stochastic internal wave model is demonstrated using nu merical simulations. For weak scattering satisfying the Rytov approxim ation, the parameters of a generalized form of the Garrett-Munk intern al wave model can be obtained. A hierarchy of experiment scenarios has been studied. Scenarios range from a densely populated vertical recei ving array to single-point measurements. In each case, the intrinsic r ange-averaging of acoustic measurements provides integral constraints on the environmental model. The success of the inversion improves with increasing experimental complexity. With a vertical array, up to four parameters of the internal wave model can be recovered. For the simpl est situation, two parameters can be fit with reasonable accuracy. The implications of these results for understanding oceanographic process es are discussed. (C) 1998 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966( 98)01907-9].