Abstract
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.
