Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
As identified by Navy speakers, new major systems under development include fixed distributive systems, tactical and surveillance multi-scale low frequency active sonars, new ASW patrol procedures, automated detection systems, and tactical environmental forecasting (TESS). · - · . Research examining the effect of the environment on acoustic signals has particularly emphasized: . Sub-bottom propagation of very low frequency energy, · Bohom, surface, and volume reverberation at 50-1 00 Hz, · Matched-field processing, and accompanying descriptions of transmission characteristics, · Mesoscale environmental predictive models and accompanying acoustic models, · Tomography, a potential validation too! for the models and a technique for determining propagation characteristics over large areas, and · Fast acoustic performance prediction models. The naval officers were optimistic about their improved detection ability, particularly their ability to cletect new signal types. They emphasized that young, inexperienced operators must be able to use tactical oceanographic systems in a complex and confusing environment. Tactical oceanography products must be in summary form and readily accessible (through personal computers or simple graphs) to a busy non-scientist. ACADEMIC-NAVY COOPERATION Navy laboratory and academic representatives spoke at length about the extensive shore-based environmental measurement and prediction systems and about large-scale oceanographic experiments. These experiments are important in producing the data for Navy operations as well as for defining system characteristics. Although symposium participants were reminded that there was more to the Navy than ASW, and more to ASW than acoustics, virtually all the talks reflected the importance of ASW in Navy operations. Many speakers reiterated that the changed Soviet threat has prompted greater interaction between acoustic and oceanographic research communities than there has been for two to three decades, but this collaboration could still be improved. Ocean physical and acoustic characteristics are 3
now reasonably connected in major moclels. However, it is still necessary to encourage connections between acoustics and ocean biology, marine geology and geophysics, coastal sciences, and marine meteorology. When the significance of Soviet quieting was finally recognized, oceanographers played a major role in setting new courses of action. The High Gain Initiative, for example, was initially intended to define the limits on passive detection through oceanographic studies. It was based on the hypothesis that at sufficiently low frequencies, acoustic signals are scrambled by multi-path interference caused by measurable or predictable mesoscale features, rather than by the unpredictable internal wave field. Thus, the possibility of "unscrambling" the signal using combinations of models and observations could be tested in a rational experimental program. The continuing emphasis on acoustics is coupled with a need for a better understanding of non-acoustic ocean parameters. Basically, ASW is a form of applied oceanography; an operator or decision maker knowledgeable about ocean characteristics and processes is better equipped to do his or her job. lt was noted that, although 'tactical oceanography" signifies immediately available decision aids, there are other significant immediate impacts of oceanographic research upon Navy operations and decisions. Although the Soviets do not operate with better knowledge of fronts and eddies than do U.S. forces at the present time, our need to maintain a permanent invulnerability of our submarine nuclear force requires that we maintain a scientific advantage in this field of study. The only reasonable approach to resolving such problems is to develop a detailed understanding of ocean characteristics and processes. Both ASW and seagoing oceanographic research are based on extracting information from the ocean. The tools used by naval and scientific practitioners have common characteristics: for example, robustness, deployability, and covertness to avoid disruption. Both kinds of practitioners need to deploy instruments in remote areas, leave them in place for long periods of time, and relay data back to shore. As resources become more limited, it will become increasingly important to examine cooperation and sharing of platforms, instrumentation, and data between naval and academic scientists. Prime examples of the operational Navy sharing with academic researchers are the ONR large ship building program, FLIP, the GEOSAT altimetry satellite, the ARGO/Medea remotely operated vehicle system, the large scale computer at Bay St. Louis, acoustic sources for the Heard Island Experiment, and use of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (lUSS) network to track SOFAR floats and receive acoustic signals for ocean tomography experiments. 4
