Fig.2 also shows possible transmission tracks in the Arctic Basin, marked A and B, to monitor averaged ocean temperature and sea ice properties, changes.
To study the sensitivity of temperature and current changes on travel times and signal intensity, unperturbed and perturbed fields of sound velocity will be used as input to the selected acoustic propagation model. Climatic data sets for the Fram Strait and the Arctic Basin will be obtained from the model simulations in Task 2. The sensitivity test will be repeated for different experiment configurations. The results will be an assessment of the possibility to detect climate-related changes of temperature and ice conditions in the Arctic Basin using acoustic propagation intensity and travel times.
Prior to the sensitivity study it is necessary to select the frequencies of the source and establish a preliminary acoustic configuration of source and receiver arrays for use in the numerical experiments in order to reduce the number of parameters to be analyzed in the sensitivity study. This has been the major activity in Task 3 and Task 4, and results from this study are reported in this paper.
Fig.2. A bathymetric map of the Arctic Ocean with possible acoustic transmission paths.
RESULTS
Task 1 : Arctic Ocean data analysis.
Existing ocean, ice and acoustic data were compiled through Internet search, scientific and technical literature, and the archives of the respective project partners. A list of data sources has been compiled, and selected profiles have been extracted as input to the simulation models.
