Effect of ocean currents on the performance of a time-reversing array in shallow water

Active acoustic time reversal may be accomplished by recording sounds with an array of transducers--a time-reversing array (TRA) or time-reversal mirror (TRM)--and then replaying the recorded and time-reversed sounds from the same array to produce back-propagating waves that converge at the location(s) of the remote sound source(s). Future active sonar and underwater communication systems suitable for use in unknown shallow ocean waters may be developed from the automatic spatial and temporal focusing properties of TRAs. However, ocean currents affect time reversal because they alter acoustic reciprocity in the environment. This paper presents a theoretical and computational investigation into how ocean currents influence TRA retrofocusing in shallow ocean environments for various array orientations. The case of TRA retrofocusing in a three-dimensional range-independent sound channel with a steady horizontal ocean current is covered here, based on a normal-mode propagation model valid for low Mach number currents. The main finding is that in the presence of ocean currents (typically <1 m/s), a TRA performs well (the associated retrofocus amplitude decay is less than 1 dB) except that a retrofocus shift (up to a few wavelengths at 500 Hz at a range of 2.5 km) may occur due to the differing interaction between the ocean current profile and each acoustic normal mode. In addition, TRA performance is predicted to depend on the array orientation relative to the ocean current direction, especially for horizontal arrays.