Speed of sound in seawater as a function of temperature and salinity at one atmosphere

The speed of sound in standard seawater (diluted with pure water and evaporated) has been measured relative to pure water with a Nusonics velocimeter as a function of temperature (0 to 40°C, at 5° intervals) and salinity (5 to 40 0/00, at 5 0/00 intervals) at a atm. The results have been fitted to an equation of the form c = c0 + A S (0/00) + B S (0/00)3/2 + C S (0/00)2, where c0 is the speed of sound in pure water, S (0/00) is the salinity in parts per thousand, and A, B, and C are temperature−dependent parameters. The sound speeds fit this equation to a standard deviation of 0.04 m sec−1 over the entire temperature and salinity range. Over the oceanographic range our results, on the average, agree with the work of Wilson to ±0.5 m sec−1 (max 1.08 m sec−1) and with the work of Del Grosso and Mader to ±0.05 m sec−1 (max 0.14 m sec−1). In the low−salinity range, (5−25 0/00 salinity) our results, on the average, agree with the work of Wilson to ±0.3 m sec−1 (max 1.1 m sec−1) and with the work of Del Grosso ...