TM No. 377 



FOREWORD 



The time variable interactions of the wind together 

 with the heating and cooling at the sea-air interface 

 make the surface ocean layers a very complex medium to 

 understand. These dynamic and thermal perturbations at 

 the surface also make it very difficult to measure and 

 predict the acoustic properties of the upper ocean layers. 

 Navy ASW programs have spent millions of dollars on in- 

 strument development in an attempt to counteract the 

 disturbing effects of the ocean medium upon the trans- 

 mission of acoustical energy. Consequently, some effort 

 should be exerted to overcome our gross ignorance of the 

 physics of the ocean surface. 



The momentum and energy supplied to the sea surface 

 by wind stress plays a critical role in determining the 

 turbulent and diffusion characteristics of the surface 

 layer; i.e., the parameters controlling the transfer of 

 heat and spatial and temporal acoustic variations. 



This report describes some new experimental ap- 

 proaches for obtaining information about wind wave tur- 

 bulence and energy distributions in the surface layer. 

 It is hoped that these studies will help to stimulate 

 further direct measurements of ocean waves and turbu- 

 lence, and that the results reported can be helpful in 

 furthering the understanding of parameters which affect 

 ASW systems . 



This work was performed under Naval Ordnance Sys- 

 tems Command Task Assignment RU22-2E-000/219 1/ROOU-O3-OI 

 for oceanographic studies, and under the Planetary Cir- 

 culations Project of the Department of Meterology at the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The report was 

 submitted by the author to the Department of Meterology 

 at MIT in partial fulfillment of the requirements for 

 the degree of Doctor of Science. The report is in two 

 volumes: volume one contains the complete basic text; 

 volume two contains the various appendices. 



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