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Sound speed profile

What is sound speed profile? A clear definition from the acoustics and sound section of our glossary, with 13 related terms, tools to try and further reading.

Definition of Sound speed profile

A sound speed profile shows the speed of sound in water at different vertical levels. It has two general representations:

tabular form, with pairs of columns corresponding to ocean depth and the speed of sound at that depth, respectively.

a plot of the speed of sound in the ocean as a function of depth, where the vertical axis corresponds to the depth and the horizontal axis corresponds to the sound speed. By convention, the horizontal axis is placed at the top of the plot, and the vertical axis is labeled with values that increase from top to bottom, thus reproducing visually the ocean from its surface downward.

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What is Sound speed profile?

A sound speed profile shows the speed of sound in water at different vertical levels. It has two general representations:

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