Sound propagation in deep water with the presence of seamounts
Seamounts in deep water have significant effects on the sound propagation. However, the reconstruction of the broadband pulses behind a seamount is indeed challenging due to the complex environment. It seems worthy to investigate the effects of seamounts on sound propagation in deep water. An experiment was conducted in 2014 in the Southern China Sea to investigate sound propagation in an environment with and without seamounts. The effects of seamounts on sound propagation were analyzed by using the broadband signals from the two propagation tracks. Transmission losses (TLs) differences for propagation in the environments with and without seamount are observed. When seamount located in the first shadow zone, the TLs decrease up to 7 dB before the seamount due to reflection of the bathymetry. The convergence zone structures are destroyed by the direct blockage of seamount and TLs increase more than 30 dB behind the seamount. Abnormal TLs and pulse arrival structures are explained by using ray theory. The numerical TLs and pulse arrival structures can match with experimental results.