ISSN 1063-7710, Acoustical Physics, 2009, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 6875. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2009.

Original Russian Text V.A. Grigorev, B.G. Katsnelson, 2009, published in Akusticheski Zhurnal, 2009, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 4755.

OCEAN ACOUSTICS
AND UNDERWATER SOUND

Intensity Variations of High-Frequency Sound Pulses

Due to the Motion of Shallow-Water Internal Solitons
V. A. Grigorev and B. G. Katsnelson
Voronezh State University, Universitetskaya pl. 1, Voronezh, 394006 Russia
e-mail: grig@box.vsi.ru, katz@phys.vsu.ru
Received September 20, 2007

AbstractIntensity variations of high-frequency sound pulses due to the motion of internal solitons in shallow
water are investigated in terms of the ray approximation. It is shown that ray distortions cause intensity fluctuations of about 35 dB. It is found that rays with turning points near the upper boundary of the thermocline play
the dominant role in the formation of these fluctuations. Formulas for estimating the fluctuation frequencies predominantly observed in the spectrum of intensity variations are presented.
PACS numbers: 43.30.Re
DOI: 10.1134/S1063771009010072

INTRODUCTION

In the special case where an IS passes directly

through the source or the receiver, variations in the
water layer cause additional fluctuations of the received
field due to variable conditions of radiation (reception).
The frequency of these fluctuations is equal to the
Visl frequency (~5 cph) and is independent of the
inclination .
The goal of this paper is an analysis of the field fluctuations at the receiver that are characterized by periods
of several minutes and observed for a sufficiently long
time (several hours) under the conditions when an IS
moves approximately along the acoustic path ( 45).
For low-frequency sound, when the mode interaction is
present, a similar problem was considered in [7, 10],
where the main features of fluctuations were investigated. For high-frequency sound, the ray approximation is valid and it is appropriate to consider additional
refraction of sound rays by inhomogeneities generated
by the IS. Examples of using the ray theory for calculating the variations caused by shallow-water internal
waves can be found in [11, 12]. The authors of these
papers considered the passage of rays through a sinusoidal train of linear internal waves of low amplitude
(~2.5 m) and obtained numerical estimates for the
spacetime variations of acoustic field. In particular, it
is shown that the presence of the train in the channel
increases the intensity contrast along the waveguides
vertical.
In the present paper, we investigate the mechanism
by which an individual IS affects the high-frequency
acoustic field, and we consider the features of intensity
variations in a shallow-water area with the use of the
ray approach. We will consider the inclinations 45
for which the horizontal refraction can be neglected;
however, as will be shown below, an additional vertical
refraction of rays by a moving IS may cause apprecia-

In this paper, we investigate the effect of intense

internal waves (in what follows, we call them internal
solitons (ISs)) on a high-frequency acoustic field in a
shallow water area. According to observations (see [1]),
ISs represent considerable (515 m) depressions (or
elevations) of the thermocline in the form of one or several solitary waves with characteristic lengths of hundreds of meters. In the horizontal plane, ISs have a
nearly plane wave front, whose length may reach several tens of kilometers. The ISs propagate mainly from
the shelf edge to the coast at a velocity of 0.51 m/s.
From the viewpoint of acoustics, an IS is a moving
anisotropic inhomogeneity that causes spacetime fluctuations of sound signals.
The usual scheme of acoustic sounding of the oceanic shelf consists in measurements on a fixed acoustic
path with the source and the receiver (vertical and/or
horizontal arrays or isolated hydrophones) located at
fixed points over a sufficiently long time (several days
or even weeks). In this case, the spacetime behavior of
the field at the receiver exhibits fluctuations characterized by various spatial and temporal scales and caused,
in particular, by the effect of internal waves and, especially, trains (packets) of ISs. The mechanism of fluctuation generation and, correspondingly, the fluctuation
pattern depend on the inclination angle of the IS front
relative to the acoustic path [2, 3]. At low frequencies,
in the framework of the mode description of acoustic
field, mode interactions cause field fluctuations for sufficiently large inclinations [47]. For small inclinations
, other mechanisms are responsible for fluctuations. In
particular, appreciable variations in intensity (~10 dB)
observed in the SWARM'95 experiment at ~ 5 were
explained by the horizontal refraction of rays [8, 9].
68

INTENSITY VARIATIONS OF HIGH-FREQUENCY SOUND PULSES

0

x
c2

h2

zu

ht

z1

c1,

n'
rn

vs

h1

H
z

69

cb, b,

S
0

Fig. 1. Geometry of the problem. The model of the waveguide.

ble intensity fluctuations. In this case, the contributions

of different rays to the fluctuation pattern are different.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
For numerical simulation, we use the waveguide and
IS parameters corresponding to the area of the
SWARM'95 and SW06 experiments (the Atlantic shelf
of the United States) [13].
The Waveguide Model
We consider a waveguide with a depth of H = 88 m
bounded by a free surface from above and a liquid
absorbing half-space from below (Fig. 1a). The source
and the receiver are located at the bottom and separated
by a distance of 10 km. The source coordinates are
(x, y, z) = (0, 0, H), and the receiver coordinates are
(r, 0, H). We use the following sound velocity profile of
the channel in the absence of ISs:
c2 , 0 z zu ;

c 0 ( z ) = c 2 ( z z u ), z u < z < z 1 ;

c 1 , z 1 z H,

(1)

where c1 = 1484 m/s, c2 = 1534 m/s, zu = 10 m, z1 = 35 m,

and = (c2 c1)/(z1 zu) = 2 c 1 is the sound velocity
gradient in the thermocline. The bottom parameters are
as follows: a sound velocity of cb = 1700 m/s, a bottom
density-to-water density ratio of m1 = b/ = 1.8, and a
dimensionless parameter characterizing sound attenuation in the bottom of = 0.01. Parameter appears in
2
the complex waterbottom refractive index: n 1 (1 + i) =
(c1/cb)2(1 + i). The coefficient of ray reflection from
the bottom Vn is calculated by the known formula
2

m 1 sin n n 1 ( 1 + i ) cos n
-,
V n = ----------------------------------------------------------------------------2
2
m 1 sin n + n 1 ( 1 + i ) cos n
2

(2)

where n is the grazing angle of the ray at the bottom.

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The Soliton Model

We assume that, in the horizontal plane (x, y), the IS
has a plane front inclined at an angle to the acoustic
path (Fig. 1b). The IS travels in the direction perpendicular to the front with a velocity of vs = 0.8 m/s. In our
numerical simulation, we consider the angles of inclination = 90 and 50. For these angles, the horizontal
refraction can be neglected; hence, it is sufficient to
study the ray paths in the vertical plane passing through
the source and the receiver. In this plane, the sound
velocity profile in the presence of an IS has the form
c ( x, z ) = c 0 ( z ) + c ( x R, z ),

(3)

where c(x R, z) = c(u, z) is the perturbation of the

profile c0(z) caused by the IS and localized in the horizontal plane within a certain vicinity of the point R.
Since the IS moves, we have R = R0 + vT, where R0 is
the initial position of the IS, T is the time, and v =
vs/sin is the IS velocity along the acoustic path (v =
0.8 and 1.04 m/s for = 90 and 50, respectively). We
use the simplified model of the IS, which ignores the
dependence of the thermocline displacement in the vertical direction on the depths of layers:
0, 0 z z u + ( u ),

c ( u, z ) = z 1 + ( u ) z H;
(4)

( u ), z u + ( u ) < z < z 1 + ( u ),
where the function (u) describes the vertical displacement of the thermocline; for this function, we use the
Kortewegde Vries (CdV) soliton
2 u
( u ) = a sech --- .
L

(5)

Here, a is the IS amplitude and L characterizes the

IS length along the acoustic path (for the CdV soliton,
the length at a level of 0.1a is 3.64L). Taking into
account the inclination of the IS front relative to the
path, we have L = Ls/sin, where Ls is the characteristic
size of the IS in the direction perpendicular to the front.
For the above waveguide model, the values a = 10 m

70

GRIGOREV, KATSNELSON

(u), m
0
2
4

6
8
10
400

200

200

M
V nm . The second subscript m charwhere V =
m=1
acterizes the fact that the angles of incidence on the bottom are different for different reflections.
The cross-sectional area of the nth ray tube near the
receiver is Sn = sin 'n rrn, where 'n is the grazing
angle of the nth ray tube near the receiver (in the general case, 'n differs from n because of the ray refraction in the soliton) and rn is the width of the insonified
region in the radial direction. We assume that the
energy En is uniformly distributed over the tube. Then,
the intensity In of an acoustic pulse1 arriving at the
receiving point along the nth ray tube is

400
u, m

Fig. 2. Model of the IS in the form of a solitary wave (see

Eq. (5)). Curve 1 corresponds to inclination = 90; in this
case, L = 95 m and the corresponding soliton length at a
depth of 1 m is 346 m. Curve 2 corresponds to inclination
= 50; in this case, L = 124 m and the corresponding soliton length at a depth of 1 m is 451 m.

VE cos n
E
I n = ---------n = -------------------------------.
S n
4rr n sin 'n

and Ls = 95 m are quite realistic. At inclinations = 90

and 50, we obtain L = 95 and 124 m, respectively,
which corresponds to IS lengths of 346 and 451 m at
a depth of 1 m (Fig. 2).

(8)

Summing the intensities of all the tubes arriving at

the receiver, we obtain the total received intensity:2
I =

I .

(9)

The Computational Procedure

For definiteness, we assume that sounding is performed with the use of short high-frequency pulses,
which ensure (i) the validity of the ray description of
acoustic field and (ii) the smallness of the IS displacement (about 10 m) within the time of propagation of a
single pulse (about 10 s) in comparison with the pulse
length, so that the soliton is assumed to be at rest at
a corresponding point R.
Consider a narrow ray tube propagating from the
source to the receiver. Figure 1a shows the extreme rays
of such a ray tube. In the region of the IS, the rays
undergo additional refraction.
We assume that the sound source is isotropic. If an
acoustic pulse of energy E is emitted in the total solid
angle 4, the energy emitted in a small solid angle will
E
be E = ------ . Because = cosn, we obtain
4
E cos
(6)
E = ------------------n ,
4
where n is the grazing angle of the nth ray tube and
and are the divergence angles of the tube in the vertical and horizontal planes at the source.
Consider the energy loss due to reflection from the
bottom. In a single bottom reflection of the nth ray tube,
the reflected (Eref) and incident (Ein) energies are
related by means of the expression Eref = |Vn |2Ein,
where Vn is the bottom reflection coefficient (2). If the
tube undergoes M reflections from the bottom before
reaching the receiver, the energy in the nth tube will be
E n = VE,

(7)

Let I0 be the intensity received in the absence of IS

(I0 = const). In the presence of an IS, the received intensity generally depends on time (from one pulse to
another): I = I(T), because the IS changes its position in
space and the rays passing through it are refracted in
different ways. Accumulating the fluctuations I(T)
within a time T = [0, T], we determine the normalized
magnitude of fluctuations,
1
1
I ( T ) = ----0 I ( T ) ------T
I

I ( T ) dT

(10)

and the corresponding amplitude spectrum,

T

G( F) =

I ( T ) exp ( i2FT ) dT .

(11)

RESULTS OF CALCULATIONS
The Field in the Unperturbed Waveguide
Figure 3 shows the angular spectrum of rays
received in the absence of ISs. Note that the grazing
angles of the received rays coincide with the grazing
angles of the corresponding emitted rays, because both
source and receiver are located at the bottom. From
Fig. 3, we can see that the rays fall into two types: bottom rays and bottomsurface rays. The main portion of
the acoustic signal energy is carried by 12 bottom rays
1 Here,

we determine the intensity in terms of the total energy of

the pulse emitted into the ray tube under consideration. In this
context, the intensity is equivalent to the energy density.
2 We assume that, at distances of ~10 km, high-frequency signals
are summed incoherently.
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INTENSITY VARIATIONS OF HIGH-FREQUENCY SOUND PULSES

(Table 1). The grazing angles n of the bottom rays

belong to the interval n = (0, cr1), and the grazing
angles of the bottomsurface rays, to the interval n =
(cr1, cr2), where cr1 and cr2 are the critical grazing
angles:
c
cr1 = arccos ----1 = 0.256 rad,
c2
cr2

(12)

c
= arccos ----1 = 0.509 rad.
cb

To simplify the subsequent consideration, we give

some characteristics of the rays in the model
waveguide. On the one hand, it is clear that the lengths
of ray cycles must be given by the expressions
r
D n = --- ,
n

n = 1, 2, ,

2c 1 tan n
2h 1
-,
D n = ------------ + --------------------
tan n

(14)

2h 1
2h 2
2
+ --- ( c 1 tan n c 2 tan n2 ), (15)
- + --------------D n = -----------tan n tan n2
where h1 and h2 are shown in Fig. 1a and tan n2 =
2

( c 1 /c 2 ) ( 1 + tan n ) 1 is the tangent of grazing

angle after the ray leaves the thermocline and enters the
upper layer (in the case of bottomsurface rays).
The lengths Dl of the bottom and bottomsurface
ray segments lying in the termocline are, respectively,
2c 1 tan n
-,
D t = --------------------

(16)

1
D t = --- ( c 1 tan n c 2 tan n2 ).

(17)

In the presence of an IS, additional refraction caused

by the soliton occurs in the region of the thermocline.
The longer the ray path in the thermocline, the greater
the refraction effect. The maximum length Dl = Dt max is
observed for ray no. 12, whose grazing angle n is closest to cr1. This maximum is Dt max = 289 m (see Table 1).
The limiting value of Dt max along the ray with grazing
angle cr1 is estimated by the formula
2 2 2
D t max = --- c 2 c 1 = 388 m.

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2009

0.3

0.4
0.5
Grazing angle, rad

Fig. 3. Angular spectrum of the rays received in the absence

of IS. Arrow marks angle cr1 of total internal reflection
from the upper boundary of the thermocline.

The total ray cycle corresponding to this estimate is

(13)

because both source and receiver are located at the bottom. In particular, we have D12 = 833 m for bottom ray
no. 12. On the other hand, for the selected sound velocity profile, ray cycles of the bottom and bottomsurface
rays have respective lengths of

Intensity, rel. units

1.0
12
0.8
11
10
0.6 2 4 6 8
0.4
0.2
0
0
0.1
0.2

71

2h 1 c 1
2 2 2
- + --- c 2 c 1 = 793 m.
D cr = -----------------2
2

c2 c1

(19)

The Sound Field in the Presence of an IS

Before discussing the results of simulation for an IS
present on the path, we qualitatively analyze the situation. We have seen that ray no. 12, characterized by the
highest intensity (Fig. 3) and the longest path in the
thermocline (Table 1), is distinguished among the
whole set of the rays emitted by the source. We call this
ray the critical ray. When the IS is near the turning point
of the critical ray (Fig. 4, position A), the effect of the
IS on this ray (additional refraction) is maximum
because of the long path of the ray in the soliton. As a
result, this ray is shifted, which perturbs the spatial distribution of sound intensity in the channel. When the IS
leaves the region of the turning point of the critical ray
Table 1. Characteristics of bottom rays in the unperturbed
waveguide
Ray no.

n , rad

(In /I0) 100%

Dn , m

Dt , m

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

0.011
0.021
0.032
0.043
0.055
0.068
0.081
0.095
0.112
0.131
0.155
0.192

5.6
5.6
5.6
5.7
5.7
5.8
5.9
6.1
6.4
7.0
8.1
11.7
= 79.2

10000
5000
3333
2500
2000
1667
1429
1250
1111
1000
909
833

16
32
48
65
82
100
120
142
167
196
232
289

72

GRIGOREV, KATSNELSON
0

Depth, m

20
40
12

60
80
5.0

5.4
5.8
6.2
Distance from the source, km

Fig. 4. Unperturbed ray no. 12 (the critical ray) and two

positions of the soliton (position A corresponds to the maximum interaction of the ray with the soliton, and position B
corresponds to the absence of interaction).

(Fig. 4, position B), the spatial distribution of intensity

is perturbed much more weakly. Other (noncritical)
rays travel shorter distance in the soliton and are consequently more weakly refracted by the IS. Moreover,
they have smaller intensities. Therefore, we can
roughly accept that the critical ray is the most responsible for fluctuations. These fluctuations occur periodically in accordance with the appearance of the IS in the
region of the turning point of the critical ray, and the
frequency of these fluctuations is
vs
v
-,
F* = ---- = --------------D sin
D

(20)

where D is the cycle length of the critical ray. This

length can be estimated by the cycle length of ray no. 12
D = D12 or by Eq. (19) D = Dcr. Table 2 presents the frequencies F* for different velocities v and different estimates of cycle length D.
The estimate of the predominant frequency of variations F* = 3.54.7 cph shows that the observation
interval T = 1 h is basically sufficient to extract the frequency F*. Fourier transform (11) of a periodic function within a segment of 3.54.7 periods of length 1/F*
has the form of a set of peaks with peak-to-peak distance F*. Prominent multiple peaks should occur if
periodic intensity variations considerably differ from
sinusoidal ones. On the contrary, if intensity variations
Table 2. Comparison of estimates with the results of simulation
= 90
= 50
(v = 0.8 m/s, (v = 1.04 m/s,
L = 95 m)
L = 124 m)
Estimates

F* = v/Dcr , cph
F* = v/D12 , cph
Simulation F *madel , cph

3.6
3.45
3.4 0.3

4.7
4.5
4.4 0.7

are nearly sinusoidal, the Fourier spectrum should contain a single main peak at F*.
Figures 58 and Table 2 present the results of
numerical simulation for an IS present in the
waveguide. Ray trajectories were calculated for the
rays with grazing angles at the source within n = (0,
0.5) at a step of = 106104 rad over the time interval T = 1 h at a step of T = 1 min, i.e., for 60 successive positions of the IS along the path. Ray trajectories
before and after the passage of the IS were calculated
by analytical formulas (14)(17). Inside the IS, the trajectories were calculated numerically. From the whole
set of calculated rays, we selected adjacent pairs covering the receiver (boundaries of the ray tubes). The
intensities of these tubes were calculated by Eqs. (8)
(10). The calculations show (Fig. 5) that temporal variations of intensity reach 35 dB, which corresponds to
experimental data [13] on the order of magnitude.
Figure 6 shows the frequency spectra of intensity
fluctuations that were calculated by Eq. (11). In view of
the finite signal length in time and discretization, the
frequency region of the Fourier spectrum is limited to
the band 1/T0.5/T = 130 cph (we considered the
band 229 cps). The spectra are smoothed with the use
of a moving window with a width of 1.2 cph (this is the
resolution of the spectrum for the 1-h observation interval) and correspond to the motion of the IS from the
source to the receiver starting from the initial position
R0 = 5.42 m (position A in Fig. 4). For other values of
R0, the resulting spectra differ from the ones in Fig. 6,
because transform (11) is a window transform, i.e., G =
G(F, R0). Some of the spectra differ significantly. For
example, groups of two to three peaks may nearly
merge into one peak for certain values of R0. However,
the calculations show that, on the whole, Fig. 6 reflects
the typical pattern of intensity fluctuation spectra.
Figure 6 supports the above assumptions concerning
the shape of the spectra. Namely, one can observe a
number of nearly equidistant peaks (eight peaks in Fig. 6a
and six peaks in Fig. 6b), which, in our opinion, characterize the periodic nonsinusoidal behavior of intensity variations. The frequency of these periodic variations F *model can be determined from the simulated
results by averaging the intervals between the adjacent
peaks (Table 2). For inclinations of = 90 and 50, we
obtain F *model = 3.4 0.3 and 4.4 0.7 cph, respectively, where the errors are calculated with a confidence
probability of 0.9. As can be seen, the estimates
obtained with Eq. (20) can be considered satisfactory
(with allowance for the errors). Nevertheless, the mean
values of the confidence intervals are somewhat smaller
than the estimates. If we use the mean frequencies to
calculate the spatial period responsible for intensity
fluctuations, we obtain D = v/ F *model ~ 850 m, which
exceeds the cycle length of ray no. 12 (833 m). This
apparently means that the predominant role in intensity
fluctuations is played by a certain group of critical rays
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INTENSITY VARIATIONS OF HIGH-FREQUENCY SOUND PULSES

73

4
(a)

(b)

Intensity, dB

2
1
0
1
2

10

20

30

40

50

60 0
10
Time, min

20

30

40

50

60

Fig. 5. Temporal variations of intensity for = (a) 90 and (b) 50. The intensity in decibels is calculated with respect to the unperturbed intensity I0.

with numbers 12 or smaller, rather than single ray no. 12,

as was assumed earlier. These rays carry a significant
percentage of the signal energy, have a turning point
near the upper surface of the thermocline, and travel a
longer path in the thermocline, as compared to other
rays.
The contributions of different rays to intensity fluctuations can be qualitatively examined using the anguG(F), s

lar spectra of the rays received in the presence of an IS

(Figs. 7 and 8). We used the case of = 90 for this
investigation and selected two positions of the IS: position A corresponding to the maximum interaction
between the IS and ray no. 12, and position B corresponding to the absence of interaction (Fig. 4). Figure 7
shows the spectra of radiation (n) and reception 'n
angles for the IS in position B. One can see that the rays
marked with letters a, b, c, and d appear to the left of
unperturbed ray no. 12 in one pattern and to the right in
the other pattern, the corresponding distances to ray
no. 12 being approximately identical. This suggests the

(a)
160
120
80
40
3.0

3.8

6.8

3.7

10.5

3.1

13.6

3.1
3.0
3.6
4.1
16.7 19.7
23.3
27.4

(b)

200

1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

160
120
80
40
3.5

3.7

7.2

5.2

12.4

10

5.7

18.1

14
18
F, cph

4.1

22.2

22

4.4

26.6

26

Fig. 6. Frequency spectra of intensity variations calculated

with the use of an averaging window with a width of 1.2 cph.
(a) = 90 (v = 0.8 m/s, L = 95 m); close adjacent peaks,
whose positions are near frequencies of 6.8 and 23.3 cph
and amplitudes differ by less than 10%, are combined.
(b) = 50 (v = 1.04 m/s, L = 124 m).
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Intensity, arb. units

1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

2009

12

(a)
b
c
d

12

(b)
b
c
d

0.1

0.2
0.3
Grazing angle, rad

0.4

0.5

Fig. 7. Angular spectrum of the rays received in the presence of an IS (L = 95 m, the IS is in position B, see Fig. 4).
The angular spectrum is given for (a) the radiation angle n
and (b) the reception angle n' . The dashed lines show the
unperturbed spectrum. Letters a, b, c, and d denote identical
rays in both patterns.

74

GRIGOREV, KATSNELSON
Intensity, arb. units
1.0
0.8
11
10
9
8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

are caused by a group of rays whose grazing angles

belong to the interval 0.10.2 rad.

12

(a)

From Fig. 6 and Table 2, it follows that a decrease in

inclination leads to an increase in the predominant
fluctuation frequency F *model . This behavior should be
expected according to Eq. (20) in view of the increase
in the velocity of the IS along the path. The dependence
F *model ~ 1/sin can be accepted to within the error. In
principle, an increase in the soliton width at a smaller
can change this dependence. However, this effect was
not revealed by our simulation.

12

(b)

11
10
8 9

CONCLUSIONS
11

0.1

0.2
0.3
Grazing angle, rad

0.4

0.5

Fig. 8. Angular spectrum of the rays received in the presence of an IS (L = 95 m) versus the average grazing angle
a = (n + 'n )/2. The soliton is located in positions (a) A
and (b) B (see Fig. 4).

idea of considering the angular spectra relative to the

average grazing angle a = (n + n' )/2. As a result,
Figs. 7a and 7b are replaced with Fig. 8b, where the
vertical intensity lines appear to be concentrated near
the lines of the unperturbed angular spectrum (near the
dashed lines). Thus, in the coordinates measured with
respect to the average angle a, the angular spectra in
the presence of an IS differ from those in the absence of
IS in that, in the first case, the lines are somewhat
broader and have other amplitudes.
Based on such spectra for soliton positions A and B
(Figs. 8a and 8b), we can compare the intensities of the
corresponding rays. One can see that, in the case of the
maximum interaction between the IS and ray no. 12
(Fig. 8a), the intensity of this ray decreases by a factor
of more than 2. At the same time, a high peak appears
at an angle exceeding the critical angle cr1 marked by
the arrow. Presumably, this peak corresponds to the
fragment of ray no. 12 that was refracted so as to intersect the thermocline and to change from the bottom ray
into the bottomsurface ray. The soliton in position A
also significantly affects ray nos. 8 and 10. They appear
to be strongly suppressed. Ray nos. 9 and 11 remain
intact, because the IS does not touch them in this case.
In the situation when the IS and ray no. 12 do not interact (Fig. 8b), ray no. 12 remains intact; however, ray
nos. 811 appear to be suppressed.
The motion of the IS along the waveguide will cause
periodic alternation of Figs. 8a and 8b. From these figures, it follows that, in this case, intensity fluctuations

Thus, the motion of an IS (a train of IS) approximately along the acoustic path causes the intensity of
the field at the receiver to undergo quasi-periodic variations. The predominant frequency of these variations
is proportional to the velocity of the IS motion along
the path and inversely proportional to the cycle length
of the critical ray. The critical ray (or, to be more accurate, the narrow group of critical rays) is characterized
by the following features:
they have a turning point near the upper boundary
of the thermocline,
they travel the longest distance in the thermocline,
they carry a major portion of signal energy.
These features determine the dominant contribution
of critical rays to intensity variations. As the IS moves
along the path, the spatial distribution of intensity varies mainly due to refraction of the critical rays with the
period of the IS passage through the turning points.
The simulation showed that the amplitude of intensity variations can be as high as 5 dB. The frequency
spectrum of variations is represented in the form of a
number of approximately equidistant peaks. The peakto-peak intervals are determined by the predominant
frequency, whose typical value under realistic conditions may be about 35 cycles per hour. A change in the
IS velocity along the path (this may take place because
of a change in the direction of the path) results in a proportional change in the peak-to-peak distance in the
spectrum.
We note an interesting consequence. Let us consider
two acoustic paths making an angle and possessing a
common source and different receivers and suppose
that a moving IS train covers both paths. Then, signal
variations at the receivers will have different spectra
and this difference will be determined by the angle
between the paths. This effect is experimentally measurable and can serve to verify the theory described
above.
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INTENSITY VARIATIONS OF HIGH-FREQUENCY SOUND PULSES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Russian Foundation
for Basic Research, project no. 06-05-64853.
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Translated by A. Vinogradov