This submission presents a methodological critique of the standard interpretation of submerged atomic clock experiments, arguing that confining timing photons to vacuum chambers excludes the very medium the experiment claims to be irrelevant. The persistent need for continuous GPS satellite clock corrections, despite pre-launch relativistic calibration, is noted as an open question consistent with —but not proving— environmental influences on timekeeping. A falsifiable three-depth experiment is proposed in which timing photons explicitly traverse the water column. A phenomenological saturation model derived from the UAT framework provides quantitative sensitivity benchmarks: a differential residual of ~5. 16 ns between 1000 m and 3000 m depth, with an SNR of ~1. 4×10⁶ using current optical clock technology. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that: The prediction is robust: varying κcrit within ±40% and kₑarly within ±5% keeps the residual between 2. 90 and 7. 50 ns, exceeding the 3σ detection threshold for 100% of the parameter space. Deep ocean is not required: the 3σ threshold is reached at approximately 10 m depth (R ≈ 0. 026 ns, SNR ≈ 7. 3×10³). A controlled laboratory setup with a 50–100 m water column would suffice for a definitive test. The signal is separable from GR: at 3000 m, the UAT residual over 500 m is ~1. 28 ns, approximately 6. 5× larger than the GR differential over the same interval (0. 20 ns), ensuring clear distinguishability. Classical refraction must be modeled: the refractive differential (~1. 13 µs over 500 m) is ~880× larger than the expected residual, requiring precise temperature and salinity monitoring. The submission makes no claim of new physics. It proposes an empirical measurement to determine whether an unmodeled residual exists beyond General Relativity and classical optics. The package includes the theoretical manuscript (LaTeX) and the analytical simulation script (Python) that generates all quantitative estimates.
Miguel Percudani (Fri,) studied this question.