Modeling Ocean Acoustic Tomography Essay -- Science Ocean Tomography

Modeling Ocean Acoustic Tomography Ocean acoustic tomography is a recent scientific breakthrough in the last thirty years. This usage of this tomography is key because of the major affect the oceans play on the Earth’s biosphere. Water takes up about 75% of the world and plays a role in land temperature variance and seasonal climate changes. In 1965, scientists pictured the ocean’s general circulation being large slow-moving currents like the Gulf Stream. These conclusions were based on periodic observations. No one had a grasp on the water’s vast expansion and high reaching depths. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, new instruments were brought to the table. Subsurface floats moved with the ocean currents. Data was gathered while a signal was emitted so ships could track it. Ocean current meters weren’t mobile, but rather fixed to one location. They would remain anchored for several months gathering the changes within the water around them. These tools discovered variability within the water’s movements. The theories on slow, basin-scale currents were hidden by the domination of mesoscale fields. These fields are high energy flows that reach ten times the average velocity of major currents. These up-tempo movements relate to the out of water weather patterns. A mesoscale can be 100 square km in size and persist for 100 days while atmospheric weather will be 1000 km, but only resonant for 3-5 days. 99% of the ocean’s kinetic energy can be summed into these mesoscale rather than the slow basin-scales. Monitoring the newly discovered mesoscales became a problem. A grid would have to be set up with monitoring equipment at 50 km intervals. Sensors would be lowered to average ocean depths (approximately 5... ...phy system along with the old ship method. The tomography setup accomplished the task in 24 hours. It took the ship, though, three weeks because each interval stop took 4-5 hours. The map was also blurred because of the long â€Å"exposing† time. Quickness has become a major role characteristic, along with coverage. 1000 km of a current was measured for temperature averages. The methods are near the point of being able to measure temperatures around the world simultaneously for references on global warming. 75% of the world is water. Finally, we are being able to study it and apply it to weather patterns within the air. Works Cited Munk, Worcester, and Wunsch. Ocean Acoustic Tomography. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Spindel, Robert C., and Peter F. Worcester. â€Å"Ocean Acoustic Tomography.† Scientific American Oct. 1990, vol. 263: 94-99.