Oceanography and Mine Warfare (2000) / Chapter Skim
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4 Mine Warfare and the Ocean Environment: Mission Influence, Research Issues, and Future Exploitation
4 Mine Warfare and the Ocean Environment: Mission Influence, Research Issues, and Future Exploitation
Pages 39-51
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From page 39... ...
The naval very shallow water regime corresponds to the oceanographically defined inner shelf (Table 4-1) , a complicated region where the surface and bottom Ekman boundary layers merge, stratification can be transient, buoyancy fluxes from rivers are commonly important, and fluid motions can be dominated variously by wave, tides, or lowfrequency currents.
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From page 40... ...
At smaller scales, wave forcing by local winds will complicate diver operations and influence the rate of mine burial or scour. On larger scales, winds can drive shelf circulation and dramatically change local optical and acoustic properties of the water column.
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From page 41... ...
Little is known about the climatology, variability, and importance of small-scale bedforms in shallow waters. These likely provide an important mechanism for mine burial.
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From page 42... ...
Tidal effects primarily influence mine warfare operations in very shallow water and the surf zone, although in the surf zone tidal currents are usually negligible compared to wave-driven flows. Near-surface mines may begin to broach at extremely low tides, providing a substantial increase in their remote sensing signature.
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From page 43... ...
Water clarity is primarily determined by absorption and scattering by phytoplankton, detrital particles, suspended sediments, and dissolved organic material, as well as by the water itself. Scattering by particles blurs images of mines and other dangers, whereas absorption dampens the power of natural or artificial light sources for both divers and optical sensors.
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From page 44... ...
Some of the mechanisms that produce spatial variability in optical properties of the littoral zone are also responsible for generating temporal variability. Optical remote-sensing with sufficiently high-spatial resolution can provide a context for extending local measurements of inherent optical properties to larger scales in the coastal zone.
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From page 45... ...
Solutions Minehunters need to be able to turn data rapidly into knowledge. Massive matrices of data on inherent optical properties of the water column can be collected in a very short time, but processing and interpretation can be a challenge.
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From page 46... ...
ocean acoustic models that are the basis for performance prediction. Water column temperature and salinity datasets typically are not collected in sufficient detail for sound speed calculations at the resolution required for mine localization.
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From page 47... ...
bottom sediment characteristics are a key factor in sediment transport, which affects water clarity and mine burial; (5) minehunting sonar performance is normally bottom reverberation limited; (6)
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From page 48... ...
Even though detailed sedimentological data are often available from bottom grabs and dive reports, these data are decimated to mud, sand, or rock based on doctrine as given in NWP 3-15 (Chapter 2, "Mine Warfare Doctrines. Operationally, a better understanding of seafloor bottom types and properties can lead to increased detection range and search rate, improved classification performance, and increased capabilities for buried mine detection.
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From page 49... ...
Development of mine burial prediction models should be initiated as part of the exploratory development phase (6.2) of the Environmental Physics for Mine Warfare Program.
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From page 50... ...
As a consequence, brute force minesweeping methods are most often used. The effect of the environment on mine warfare operations can best be described in terms of the planning and in-stride execution phase and then a follow-up phase.
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From page 51... ...
At sites with an appreciable tide range, advantage may be taken in search planning of tidal shifts of the break point and locations of strongest wave breaking. Environmental parameters in the surf zone have significant influences on diver and marine mammal operations, which are the same as those affecting Special Operations Forces, detailed in a separate Ocean Studies Board (OSB)
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