Effects of Array Design on Acoustic Propagation Modeling in Seismic Surveys

Marine seismic surveys are large-scale tests used to study the seabed and sub-seabed by utilizing sound reflected from the ocean bottom, generated from airgun arrays. Airgun arrays used in these experiments often exceed Sound Exposure Levels (SEL) as high as 220 dB (re 1 μPa), and thus it is important to understand the potential impact of these surveys on marine mammals. To mitigate any harm that may be caused to nearby marine life, propagation models should be implemented to estimate the sound exposure level as a function of range for a given environment. These models are complicated by both the source array design, which effects the propagation modeling, and the receiver array design, which alters the data processing by misrepresenting the acoustic field. The purpose of this manuscript is to examine, through simulation, the potential effects of both of these arrays on both modeling acoustic propagation and interpreting acoustic data from the experiments.