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PAssive COastal TOMography: an Innovative Approach for the Remote Monitoring of Sea Temperature
Author(s) -
Marinis Enrico,
Picco Paola,
Crise Alessandro,
Gasparini Otello,
Salon Stefano
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
marine ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.668
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1439-0485
pISSN - 0173-9565
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0485.2002.tb00013.x
Subject(s) - empirical orthogonal functions , tomography , noise (video) , mediterranean sea , environmental science , ambient noise level , meteorology , remote sensing , speed of sound , oceanography , sound (geography) , computer science , geology , mediterranean climate , climatology , acoustics , geography , physics , archaeology , artificial intelligence , optics , image (mathematics)
. This paper describes a new Ocean Acoustic Tomography (OAT) methodology ‐ a passive tomography ‐ presently in an advanced development phase. This technique has been developed for long‐term, extensive, remote monitoring of the seawater temperature spatial distribution, which is estimated from the received noise emitted from ships of opportunity. To test the passive tomographic processor under controlled conditions, the components of the naval noise from different kinds of vessels was analysed and realistic naval noise was simulated. The feasibility of the proposed methodology was confirmed by test‐runs on semi‐synthetic data; its capability to resolve temperature profiles will be better assessed with the use of real acoustic and environmental data collected during the INTIMATE00 experiment performed in October 2000 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Portuguese coast. An analysis of the space and time variability of the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) decomposition of the sound speed (SSP) in the Mediterranean Sea has been carried out to identify areas where acoustic tomography can be successfully applied. Results from simulations in the South Adriatic Sea, which was identified as a region with a high sound speed variability associated with the seasonal cycle and with the main oceanographic processes, are reported.