Long-Term Change of Sound Wave Propagation Attenuation Due to the Effects of Ocean Acidification

Abstract:

In recent years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing due to global warming. And, the ocean acidification advances because this melts into seawater, pH decrease in seawater are concerned. The sound wave to propagate seawater, pH is known to affect absorption loss (α) by chemical buffer effects of the seawater. However, conventionally, α has not been investigated much in the calculation of pH. Therefore, when calculating the propagation distance in the sonar equation, pH =8~8.1 (Weak alkaline) are used empirically. Therefore we used an actual value of pH of 30 years from 1984 in the sea near the Japan, and investigated change over the years of absorption loss (α) at some frequency. As a result, we found that α value decreases gradually in the past 30 years, as high-latitude decreases. Further, the future, assuming that ocean acidification is more advanced, and to simulate a change of the absorption loss and propagation loss in end of this century using the pH value reported from the "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" (IPCC). As a result, it was just suggested that α decreased more in the end of this century and affected the submarine detection. In addition, in recent years, we examined the effects of noise that offshore wind power construction proceeds in each country emits gives to the underwater sound. As a result, in the end of this century, an underwater noise increases about 17%, and underwater sound environmental degradation of the sea is concerned.