Word: sofar
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...markers, a hand-cranked automatic radio, etc.) the U.S. Navy added another that has vastly more range and accuracy than al] the rest. The latest, perfected too late for use in World War II but due for plenty of use, nevertheless, is a long-range underwater sound system called Sofar (Sound Fixing and Ranging...
...Sofar, a by-product of wartime submarine detection research, is as curious as it is practical. A five-pound bomb, tossed into the water by the survivor, explodes under hydrostatic pressure 3,000 to 4,000 feet under sea. Sound waves, carried by the water, are picked up by three or more shore stations. By careful comparison of the arrival times of the signals, the stations can chart the position of the explosion, through triangulation...
...Sofar's range is one of its most startling features: a test bomb dropped at Dakar was heard in the Bahamas, 3,100 miles away...
...most notable finding of the Navy's experimenters-and the basis of Sofar-is the sound-carrying property of water 2,000-6,000 feet below the surface. This zone conserves, focuses and carries sound waves over great distances. Sped by the sound-carrying properties of deep water (a function of temperature and density), the explosion of Sofar's underwater bomb comes to the receiving stations as a noise something like a rolling kettledrum crescendo, ending in a sharp report which can be timed to a tenth of a second...