Underwater acoustic scintillation in the changing Arctic

Recent changes in the Arctic Ocean make it a challenging environment for the prediction of underwater acoustic waves propagation. While the Arctic has historically always been of great interest for SONAR studies, the main characteristics of the surface boundary of the water column is now drastically different: the continuous, thick, and very rough ice canopy is being replaced by an extended marginal ice zone, composed of a random alternation of ice floes and open water leads. The roughness of the multiyear ice was considered to be the main factor for the attenuation of underwater acoustic waves propagating in the environment. The replacement of multiyear ice by this fragile, thinner, and smoother ice cover leads to reconsider this paradigm. We will hereby focus on the exploitation of experimental efforts in the Eastern Arctic, the NREP (Nordic Recognized Environmental Picture) series. Fusion of remote sensing data allowed the estimation of the position and drift of the ice floes at the sea surface. Simultaneous sound wave propagation was conducted by transmitting signals from the support ship toward acoustic receivers within the ice field. On the other hand, the scintillation of surface interaction paths are highlighted by numerical methodologies and compared to the collected data.