Acoustic Tomography of Natural Media

A review of the most important results obtained recently at the Faculty of Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University in the field of acoustic tomography of natural media with regard to the specifics of hydro- and seismoacoustic applications is presented. The most urgent problems encountered in this area of research are highlighted and approaches to their solution are proposed. New methods for solving the problems of seismo-hydroacoustic tomography of a layered geophysical environment of ‘‘lithosphere–hydrosphere–ice cover’’ type have been theoretically developed and experimentally tested by using information about vector–phase structure of acoustic field. Capabilities and limitations of active and passive tomographic methods utilizing data from single receivers recording natural noise over a wide frequency range are described. New approaches to the solution of mode tomography problem for inhomogeneous moving ocean based on functional-analytical methods for solving inverse scattering problems are proposed and numerically investigated. The presented results make it possible to simplify technical difficulties and reduce the cost of tomographic experiment, which opens up the possibility of widespread application of acoustic tomography methods both in research activities and for solving purely applied problems.