Effect of near-surface bubble plumes on the acoustic signal used in UWACNs

Abstract

Shallow water environments exhibit significantly prominent spatio-temporal variability; compared to the ones corresponding to deep oceans. An acoustic signal propagating through a shallow water region faces multiple reflections with the ocean surface as well as with the ocean bottom. So, rendering wireless acoustic communication in such type of unpredictable environment is challenging, as the acoustic signal is subjected to different losses such as multipath fading and absorption.In this paper, we analyze the near ocean surface anomalous behavior of acoustic signals, typically observed in Underwater Wireless Acoustic Communication Networks (UWACNs), due to damping in the presence of sub-surface bubble plumes. Bubbles have profound impact on the acoustical properties in the oceanic environment. The injection of bubble plumes near ocean surface renders the subsurface acoustic signal to behave anomalously.