Benchmarks for validating range-dependent seismo-acoustic propagation codes

The availability of fast and relatively low-cost computing power has resulted in radical changes to the role of seismo-acoustic modeling. With the increase in the number of models available, there is the inevitable question of how can one go about validating all these numerical schemes. Recently, the issue of establishing reference solutions for range dependent ocean acoustic problems was addressed within the Acoustical Society of America. This has resulted in a set of well-defined benchmarks for range-dependent fluid problems. However, to date, there is no consistent set of benchmarks for the range-dependent seismo-acoustic codes. In this paper, we present a collection of problems intended for general use by the modeling community for validation of new computational schemes. A number of new seismo-acoustic codes are applied to produce reference solutions for these benchmarks.