Liu J.

An underwater acoustic experiment using a small fishing boat as a traveling source is conducted in a very shallow-water environment near a harbor area. The objectives of the research are to study the characteristics of the noise field generated by the fishing boat and to analyze the effects of seabed properties and the sea surface and/or harbor ambient noise on the noise field. The experiment was implemented using a six-cylinder, 20-m long, CT-3 type fishing boat, and the acoustic field is measured by ITC6050 hydrophones. The related physical and geological parameters of the marine environment including the water depth, sound speed profile, sediment properties and waveguide geometry are carefully measured. Numerical simulations based upon underwater acoustic waveguide propagation are invoked to analyze the structures of the noise field patterns. The preliminary results have shown that the generated noise-field patterns are closely related with the environmental properties of the water column and the seabed, indicating the possibility of employing the simple experimental geometry in the research of geoacoustic exploration and underwater communication in a shallow-water environment near a harbor area.