Acoustic Sensing Techniques for the Shallow Water Environment

Thisvolume contains thecollection of papers from the second workshop on Expe- mental Acoustic Inversion Techniques for Exploration of theShallow Water Environment. Theworkshopthemefollowedtheoriginalconceptofthe rstworkshop heldinCarvoeiro Portugal in 1999 i.e. to focus on experiments and experimental techniques for acoustic sensing in the shallow ocean. More than forty leading international scientists were invited to meet in the picturesque town of St. Angelo on the island of Ischia in June 2004 to discuss progress in the application of new experimental techniques for exploration and assessment of shallowwater environments. Acoustic techniques provide the most effective means for remote sensing of ocean and sea oor processes and for probing the structure beneath the sea oor. No other energy propagates as ef ciently in the ocean: radio waves and visible light are severely limited in range because the ocean is a highly conductive medium. However sound from bre- ing waves and coastal shipping can be heard throughout the ocean and marine mammals communicate acoustically over basin scale distances.