Underwater acoustic technology: review of some recent developments

Abstract

It is a truism to say that the relationship of science and technology is pushpull. This is illustrated regularly throughout the fields of ocean engineering and ocean science. It underlies this review for the particular case of underwater acoustics over the past decade. Developments are summarized apropos of the interests of the OES Technology Committee on Underwater Acoustics: (1) design, fabrication, and testing of acoustic instrumentation such as transducers, transducer arrays, hydrophones, sound sources, transponders, and recording systems; (2) use of acoustic instrumentation in the form of active and passive sonar systems for such applications as bottom mapping, underwater imaging, ocean measurement, observation and quantification of biological organisms, target surveillance and tracking; (3) modeling and prediction of ocean acoustic parameters, such as multipath arrival structure, scattering, reverberation, and noise, which influence sonar system performance. Related topics such as underwater acoustic communication, navigation, and positioning; sonar image processing; and inference of ocean acoustic parameters are addressed in separate, independent reviews. This review is a contribution to the 40th anniversary celebration of the OES.