A Simplified Sound Propagation Tool

In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the role of man-made sound on the marine environment. For this effort, we propose developing an intuitive software interface for sound propagation modeling. This will be based on software developed at HLS Research, Inc. for similar applications. The software will use existing propagation modeling codes that have a long history in the underwater acoustics community. Due to the complex nature of the ocean environment and the disparate types of sound sources and marine life, the software requires a suite of underwater acoustic source and propagation models. The interface will embody a seemingly simplistic and guided approach to enable a user without highly specialized knowledge to select appropriate model inputs in order to attain meaningful received level metrics. GUI based software tools will be provided to easily manipulate the results for visual representation or for distillation into text-based parameters for risk assessment.