Theoretical and numerical Green’s function field solution in a plane multilayered medium

Abstract

An explicit general form is derived for the depth-dependent Green’s function occurring in the integral solution to the Helmholtz wave equation for range-independent layered media. This representation permits arbitrary location of the source and receiver. In addition, a technique, the Fast Field Program (FFP), for the evaluation of the integral solution is delineated. Examples of the use of both the formulation and the FFP to the problem of modeling underwater acoustic propagation loss versus range, where the source/receiver are in air/water, in water/bottom, and in a cross-layer surface duct, are discussed.