Abstract
Chemical relaxations have been shown to be responsible for the excess sound absorption observed in ocean propagation measurements. Although a great number of processes occur in sea water, only two account for most of the absorption in the frequency range of interest. These involve MgSO4 (relaxation frequency fr~100 kHz) and B(OH)3 (fr~1 kHz). Investigations by the resonator method have revealed a third relaxation involving MgCO3 (fr~10 kHz) which accounts for a small absorption anomaly observed in the mid-frequency region. The B(OH)3 and the MgC03 components both increase exponentially with pH in the sea water range (7.7–8.3). A semi-empirical model for pH and temperature dependence of the absorption spectrum appear to be consistent with both the ocean data and resonator measurements in artificial sea water.
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© 1981 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Mellen, R.H. (1981). Chemical Sound Absorption in the Sea. In: Bjørnø, L. (eds) Underwater Acoustics and Signal Processing. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 66. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8447-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8447-9_4
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