• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.432-443
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• 2015

Coherence describing the similarity between physical quantities of two signals is a very useful tool to investigate the temporal and spatial characteristics of signals propagating in underwater acoustic waveguide. Ambient noise measurements were made by the vertical received array consisting of three hydrophones as part of the KIOST-HYU joint acoustics experiment, and the coherence for the underwater ambient noise was analyzed. In this paper, the coherence results in cases that the generator in the research vessel was off and turned on are presented. The coherence estimated in the case of the generator operation mode are compared to the predictions obtained using the theoretical model with the directional density function dominated by vertical components propagating downward from the ship. In the case of the generator switch-off, the results are compared to the model predictions with directional density function including the effects of sea surface noise and long-distance shipping noise.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.411-422
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• 2015

This paper presents an overview of the geological environment investigation and underwater acoustic measurements for the purpose of "Study on the Relationship between the Geological Environment and Acoustic Propagation in Shallow Water", which are jointly carried out by KIOST (Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology) and Hanyang University in the western shallow water off the Taean peninsula in the Yellow Sea in April-May 2013. The experimental site was made up of various sediment types and bedforms due to the strong tidal currents and coastal geomorphological characteristics. The geological characteristics of the study area were intensively investigated using multi-beam echo sounder, sub-bottom profiler, sparker system and grab sampler. Acoustic measurements with a wide range of research topics in a frequency range of 20~16,000 Hz: 1) low frequency sound propagation, 2) mid-frequency bottom loss, 3) spatial coherence analysis of ambient noise, and 4) mid- frequency bottom backscattering were performed using low- and mid-frequency sound sources and vertical line array. This paper summarizes the topics that motivated the experiment, methodologies of the acoustic measurements, and acoustic data analysis based on the measured geological characteristics, and describes summary results of the geological, meteorological, and oceanographic conditions found during the experiments.