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Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was the original name for a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS classified as well.
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) [2] is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances , communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water, such as other vessels.
At the beginning of the 20th century some ships communicated by underwater bells as well as using the system for navigation. Submarine signals were at the time competitive with the primitive maritime radionavigation. [2] The later Fessenden oscillator allowed communication with submarines.
During World War II, naval personnel stationed at Point Sur, California conducted experiments with early sonar and radar systems. In 1949, while conducting research into the use of sound to detect submarines, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory reported it was able to detect submarines at ranges of 10 to 15 nautical miles (19 to 28 km; 12 to 17 mi) using SOFAR hydrophones off Point Sur.
Output of a computer model of underwater acoustic propagation in a simplified ocean environment. A seafloor map produced by multibeam sonar. Underwater acoustics (also known as hydroacoustics) is the study of the propagation of sound in water and the interaction of the mechanical waves that constitute sound with the water, its contents and its boundaries.
Communication with submarines is a field within military communications that presents technical challenges and requires specialized technology. Because radio waves do not travel well through good electrical conductors like salt water, submerged submarines are cut off from radio communication with their command authorities at ordinary radio frequencies.
Initially the SURTASS system were passive, receiving only sonar systems. The array was towed miles behind the ships and were designed for long range detection of submarines. As the passive systems were being deployed, an active adjunct known as the SURTASS Low Frequency Active (LFA) systems was designed for long range detection.
An early use of underwater acoustic positioning systems, credited with initiating the modern day development of these systems, [15] involved the loss of the American nuclear submarine USS Thresher on 10 April 1963 in a water depth of 2560m. [16] An acoustic short baseline (SBL) positioning system was installed on the oceanographic vessel USNS ...