Ocean acoustic tomography - Travel time biases

The travel times of acoustic rays traced through a climatological sound-speed profile are compared with travel times computed through the same profile containing an eddy field. The accuracy of linearizing the relations between the travel time difference and the sound-speed deviation at long ranges is assessed using calculations made for two different eddy fields measured in the eastern Atlantic. Significant nonlinearities are found in some cases, and the relationships of the values of these nonlinearities to the range between source and receiver, to the anomaly size associated with the eddies, and to the positions of the eddies are studied. An analytical model of the nonlinearities is discussed.