Correlation of Ambient Sea Noise

The spatial harmonic representation of arbitrary noise fields is applied to the vertical directionality of ambient sea noise. The theory is related to existing models. Some new models are presented which allow the spatial correlation to be computed with ease for arbitrary sensor orientations. Results from these models are compared with a large body of data and are found to be in good agreement over a large frequency range. [This work was performed at the University of California, San Diego, Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California 02132.]