The effects of ice cover and oceanography on medium-frequency acoustic propagation on the Chukchi Shelf

The Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE) was a year-long experiment exploring the changing nature of sound propagation and ambient noise in the Arctic ocean. As part of this experiment, medium-frequency signals at 0.7–1 kHz and 1–4 kHz were transmitted by two sources on the Chukchi Shelf. One of these sources was located in an area of 150 m of water depth, approximately 350 m from a directional receiver array and 50 km from an 8-element vertical line array in a water depth of about 125 m. Oceanographic sensors were located both on the arrays and on a set of moorings on the shelf, and an ice-profiling sonar was located between the arrays about 15 km from the source. In this talk, we will focus on using the measured environmental data and propagation modeling to characterize the variability observed in the short-range and long-range received acoustic signals over the course of CANAPE.