Analysis on Effective Propagation Range of Reliable Acoustic Path with Experimental Demonstration

Reliable acoustic path (RAP) is an important duct propagation for source localization in deep ocean. The robust propagation range with high energy and without interface reflection is related to ocean depth, source/receiver depth, sound speed profile (SSP) and so on. This paper discusses the maximum propagation range of RAP by using the ray acoustic model BELLHOP under different simulation conditions. The simulation results show that whether the critical depth is existent or not is an vital information for active and passive sonar application. The maximum propagation range of RAP is experimentally demonstrated using beamforming data from a bottom-mounted circle array.