Acoustic Propagation Analysis Program for Marine Scientists

People who work in the marine sciences field often need to analyze the transmission of sound through the ocean. Today, there are more than 60 different propagation loss models available; no single model is the best in all cases. Choosing the appropriate model, as well as the necessary input data to the model can be a daunting task. In this proposal, we discuss an approach to designing a computer program that would solve this problem by allowing multiple propagation models and databases to coexist for the purposes of analysis, provide a user interface that would guide the user through choosing the appropriate models and data, and provide analysis tools that would allow the user to determine the statistical nature of the acoustic problem being analyzed. As part of this project, we propose to develop a prototype system to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.