Pecan: A Canadian Parabolic Equation Model for Underwater Sound Propagation

PECan is a Canadian N× 2D/3D parabolic equation (PE) underwater sound propagation model that was developed for matched-field processing applications. It is based on standard square-root operator and/or propagator approximations that lead to an alternating direction solution of the 3-D problem. A 2-D split-step Padé approximation is employed for propagation in range. The 3-D azimuthal corrections are computed using either a split-step Fourier method or a Crank–Nicolson finite-difference approximation. It features a heterogeneous formulation of the differential operators on an offset vertical grid, energy conservation, a choice of initial field including self-starter, and both absorbing and nonlocal boundary conditions. Losses due to shear wave conversion in an elastic bottom are handled in the context of a complex density approximation. In this paper, PECan is described and validated against some standard benchmark solutions to underwater acoustics problems. Subsequently, PECan is applied to several single-frequency test cases that were offered for numerical consideration at the SWAM'99 Shallow Water Acoustic Modeling workshop.