Acoustic radiation due to surface wave breaking

The results of a recent paper [R. M. Kennedy, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 1974–1982 (1992)] are corrected and extended to quantitatively relate parameters of the spectrum of sea-surface-generated acoustic radiation to parameters of surface gravity wave breaking. Specifically the frequency of the maximum acoustic energy spectrum scales with the characteristic length of the wave-breaking process and the acoustic energy scales directly with wave energy dissipated by wave breaking. Furthermore, it is shown that the measured fraction of the wave energy dissipated by wave breaking that is radiated as acoustic energy agrees closely with similar laboratory measurements [M. R. Loewen and W. K. Melville, J. Fluid Mech. 224, 601–623 (1991)]. This latter result requires a correction be made to parameters found in the original paper. These conclusions have important implications to acoustical oceanography objectives.