Scanning Doppler LIDAR wind profiles to inform near shore atmospheric acoustic propagation modeling

This work presents a comprehensive experimental system to measure concurrent atmospheric acoustic transmission loss and meteorological conditions. A three-dimensional scanning Doppler lidar wind profiler captures real-time wind speed gradients at many locations along the acoustic propagation path of a simple pitch catch style study. A long-range acoustic device on an anchored pontoon sends known chirp sequences to a seven-channel receiver array at the water’s edge at ranges up to approximately one kilometer. Additional synchronized meteorological observations include temperature, humidity, and wind measured with anemometers. The meteorological data stream is used to inform the sound speed gradient implemented in a parabolic equation based numerical model of atmospheric acoustic propagation. The model can account for sea surface roughness and accommodate a sound speed profile that changes along the propagation range. Model predictions are compared to measured transmission losses. An assessment of the value of the computational cost of incorporating the varying sound speed profiles in the model is presented.