A MODEL TO ESTIMATE THE DENSITY, CHARACTERISTIC SURFACE, AND COVERAGEOF WHITECAPS USING UNDERWATER SOUND

A model of ambient noise is described which permits one to estimate th e density of whitecaps at the sea surface as well as the scaling as a function of wind speed of whitecap coverage and characteristic surface . This model relates the statistical properties of underwater sound (f irst and second moments) to whitecap distribution at the sea surface a nd to underwater sound propagation. The sound propagation model accoun ts for seabed reflections. Simulations show that seabed reflection eff ects can be great in shallow water, implying that the listening radii for hydrophone measurements, as defined by Farmer and Vagle (1988), ca n often be very large compared to hydrophone depth.