Simulating acoustic scattering from atmospheric temperature fluctuations using a k-space method

Hargreaves, JA; Kendrick, P; von Hünerbein, S

Abstract

This paper describes a numerical method for simulating far-field scattering from small regions of inhomogeneous temperature fluctuations. Such scattering is of interest since it is the mechanism by which acoustic wind velocity profiling devices (Doppler SODAR) receive backscatter. The method may therefore be used to better understand the scattering mechanisms in operation and may eventually provide a numerical test-bed for developing improved SODAR signals and post-processing algorithms. The method combines an analytical incident sound model with a k-space model of the scattered sound close to the inhomogeneous region and a near-to-far-field transform to obtain far-field scattering patterns. Results from two test case atmospheres are presented: one with periodic temperature fluctuations with height and one with stochastic temperature fluctuations given by the Kolmogorov spectrum. Good agreement is seen with theoretically predicted far-field scattering and the implications for multi-frequency SODAR design are discussed.

Citation

Hargreaves, J., Kendrick, P., & von Hünerbein, S. (2014). Simulating acoustic scattering from atmospheric temperature fluctuations using a k-space method. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 135(1), 82-92. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4835955

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 8, 2013
• Publication Date: Jan 14, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 17, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA)
• Print ISSN: 0001-4966
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 135
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 82-92
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4835955
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4835955
• Related Public URLs: http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/