f Sound Propagation and Attenuation from Airgun Sources in Shallow Water

There has been recent concern about the impact of marine airgun sources on marine life such as dolphins, killer whales and baleen whales. The sources produce very high sound pressure levels at very short range, however several physical phenomena act to attenuate these high sound levels at long range. This study utilizes calibrated sound pressure recordings from an airgun source in shallow water and ocean acoustics modeling to better understand and quantify the the propagation and attenuation as a function of range from the source.