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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Measurements of Waves in a Wind-wave Tank Under Steady and Time-varying Wind Forcing
Published on: February 13, 2018
Analysis and modeling of broadband airgun data influenced by nonlinear internal waves
Scott D Frank1, Mohsen Badiey, James F Lynch
1Department of Mathematical Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St., Troy, New York 12180, USA. scott.frank@marist.edu
Abstract:
To investigate acoustic effects of nonlinear internal waves, the two southwest tracks of the SWARM 95 experiment are considered. An airgun source produced broadband acoustic signals while a packet of large nonlinear internal waves passed between the source and two vertical linear arrays. The broadband data and its frequency range (10-180 Hz) distinguish this study from previous work. Models are developed for the internal wave environment, the geoacoustic parameters, and the airgun source signature. Parabolic equation simulations demonstrate that observed variations in intensity and wavelet time-frequency plots can be attributed to nonlinear internal waves. Empirical tests are provided of the internal wave-acoustic resonance condition that is the apparent theoretical mechanism responsible for the variations. Peaks of the effective internal wave spectrum are shown to coincide with differences in dominant acoustic wavenumbers comprising the airgun signal. The robustness of these relationships is investigated by simulations for a variety of geoacoustic and nonlinear internal wave model parameters.
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