Features of Sound Propagation in the Presence of Bubble Clouds in the Perturbed Surface Layer of the Ocean

Abstract

There are contradictory opinions on the contribution of the near-surface layer of bubbles to the attenuation of low-frequency sound in the ocean. Taking into account the new experimental data on the distribution of bubbles in seawater, it is shown that the influence of the near-surface layer of bubbles on the structure of the spatial decay in sound propagation can be significant at rather typical concentrations of bubbles in the near-surface layers of the ocean. A possible explanation for the contradictions is the spatial restructuring of the field in which the main effect of the bubbles is focused on the near distance; sound attenuation at a great distance is not affected.