Rough surface elastic wave scattering in a horizontally stratified ocean

A previously developed boundary perturbation method [W. A. Kuperman, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 58, 365–370 (1975)] is extended to treat scattering at a randomly rough interface which separates viscoelastic media. This method is then combined with a full wave treatment of sound propagating in a stratified ocean described by a system of fluid and elastic layers [H. Schmidt and F. B. Jensen, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 77, 813–825 (1985)]. The net result of combining the extended boundary perturbation method with the full wave solution technique is to define a set of effective potentials which, when inserted in the full wave solution algorithm, yield the coherent components of the compressional and shear wave fields which decay with range due to boundary roughness scattering into incoherent compressional and shear waves. A natural outcome of this model is also the option to calculate the coherent reflection coefficient for an arbitrarily arranged layered system of fluid/solid media separated by randomly rough interfaces. ...