Development of the Modern Theory of Sound Propagation in the Turbulent Atmosphere

Abstract : The foundations of the modern theory of sound propagation and scattering in a homogeneous and isotropic atmospheric turbulence are developed: The sound scattering cross-section for von Karman spectra of temperature and wind velocity fluctuations is calculated; the rigouros theory of line of sight sound propagation in an atmosphere with Kolmogorov, Gaussian and von Karman spectra of temperature and wind velocity fluctuations is developed; a new theoretical formulation of the interference of the direct wave from source to receiver and that reflected from the ground in a turbulent atmosphere is presented; the sound scattering cross section in an atmosphere with arbitrary profiles of temperature and wind velocity is calculated; some predictions of the modern theory are verified experimentally; correct wideangle parabolic equations for sound waves in a turbulent atmosphere are derived and used for numerical simulations of sound propagation. The modern theory has already been adopted by scientists for calculations of sound propagation in turbulent media and as a basis for development of new acoustic remote sensing techniques of the atmosphere and ocean in several countries and organizations including the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.