Transverse horizontal spatial coherence of deep arrivals at megameter ranges

Predictions of transverse horizontal spatial coherence from path integral theory are compared with measurements for two ranges between 2000 and 3000 km. The measurements derive from a low-frequency ~75 Hz! bottom-mounted source at depth 810 m near Kauai that transmitted m-sequence signals over several years to two bottom-mounted horizontal line arrays in the North Pacific. In this paper we consider the early arriving portion of the deep acoustic field at these arrays. Horizontal coherence length estimates, on the order of 400 m, show good agreement with lengths calculated from theory. These lengths correspond to about 1° in horizontal arrival angle variability using a simple, extended, spatially incoherent source model. Estimates of scintillation index, log-amplitude variance, and decibel intensity variance indicate that the fields were partially saturated. There was no significant seasonal variability in these measures. The scintillation index predictions agree quite well with the dataset estimates; nevertheless, the scattering regime predictions ~fully saturated! vary from the regime classification ~partially saturated! inferred from observation. This contradictory result suggests that a fuller characterization of scattering regime metrics may be required. © 2005 Acoustical Society of America. @DOI: 10.1121/1.1854851#