Ray dynamics in a long-range acoustic propagation experiment

A ray-based wavefield description is employed in the interpretation of measurements made during the November 1994 Acoustic Engineering Test (the AET experiment). In this experiment phase-coded pulse-like signals with 75 Hz center frequency and 37.5 Hz bandwidth were transmitted near the sound channel axis in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. The resulting acoustic signals were recorded on a moored vertical receiving array at a range of 3252 km. In our analysis both mesoscale and internal-wave-induced sound speed perturbations are taken into account. Much of this analysis exploits results that relate to the subject of ray chaos; these results follow from the Hamiltonian structure of the ray equations. We present evidence that all of the important features of the measured AET wavefields, including their stability, are consistent with a ray-based wavefield description in which ray trajectories are predominantly chaotic.