A demonstration of ocean acoustic tomography

Over the past decade oceanographers have become increasingly aware of an intense and compact ocean 'mesoscale' eddy structure (the ocean weather) that is superimposed on a generally sluggish large-scale circulation (the ocean climate). Traditional ship-based observing systems are not adequate for monitoring the ocean at mesoscale resolution. A 1981 experiment mapped the waters within a 300 × 300 km square south-west of Bermuda, using a peripheral array of moored midwater acoustic sources and receivers. The variable acoustic travel times between all source-receiver pairs were used to construct the three-dimensional (time-variable) eddy fields, using inverse theory. Preliminary results from inversions are consistent with the shipborne and airborne surveys.