Feasibility study of 10-kHz Coastal Acoustic Tomography System for current monitoring in the Persian Gulf

Acoustic Tomography (AT) technique is widely used in developed countries for water resources monitoring of the oceans, seas, and rivers. The 10-kHz Coastal Acoustic Tomography System (CATS) is previously applied to monitor coastal seas in the scale of kilometers. In this study, we evaluated the capability of the 10-kHz CAT system. The equation of sound propagation in water was developed to introduce a new equation to estimate the maximum operational range of 10-kHz CAT system. The results showed that with the assumption of clear seawater, the minimum and maximum operational ranges are 57 and 18000 m, respectively. Moreover, the velocity resolution is better than 0.1 cm/s in the range of greater than 7000 m. Choosing a suitable M Sequence due to the distances between acoustic stations is another point of operation to have the best performance. It is suggested that scientists apply this technique to monitor the Persian Gulf currents.