Micro-multipath interference and its effect on sub-minute acoustic fluctuations: Observations of mid-frequency acoustic propagation in the upper ocean

An experiment was conducted to investigate how variability in the acoustic channel impulse response at signal processing timescales of seconds to minutes is related to internal-wave-driven changes in the ocean sound speed field on timescales of tens of minutes. We find that vertical fine-scale structures (≤10 m) embedded in the sound speed profile have strong second derivatives which allow for the formation of acoustic caustics as well as acoustic propagation pathways that interfere with each other (micro-multipaths). Both effects are sensitive to vertical displacement by internal waves, which can therefore produce sub-minute acoustic fluctuations from internal waves that have timescales longer than a minute.