Arctic glacial bays are among the loudest natural environments in the ocean, owing to heavy submarine melting, calving, freshwater discharge, and ice–wave interactions. Understanding the coherence and vertical directionality of the ambient sound there can provide insights about the mechanisms behind the ice loss in these regions. It can also provide key information for operating technologies such as sonar, communication, and navigation systems. To study the unexplored sound coherence and vertical directionality in glacial bays, a vertical hydrophone array was deployed, and acoustic measurements were made at four glacier termini in Hornsund Fjord, Spitsbergen, in June and July 2019. The measurements show that the sound generated by melting glacier ice is more dominant in the upper portion of the water column near the glacier terminus. The melt water from the submarine melting and the freshwater discharge from the glacier create a glacially modified water duct near the sea surface. This disrupts the inter-sensor vertical coherence in the channel. However, some coherence across the duct is preserved for sound arising from spatially localized events at low frequencies. Overall, the observations in this study can help improve the understanding of the submarine melting phenomenon in glacial bays.

中文翻译：

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Hornsund峡湾冰川湾声场的垂直方向性和空间连贯性

由于海底大量融化，产犊，淡水排放以及冰波相互作用，北极冰河海湾是海洋中最响亮的自然环境之一。了解那里的环境声音的连贯性和垂直方向性，可以提供有关这些区域中冰损失背后的机制的见解。它还可以为诸如声纳，通信和导航系统之类的操作技术提供关键信息。为了研究冰河海湾中未经探索的声音连贯性和垂直方向性，部署了垂直水听器阵列，并于2019年6月和7月在斯匹次卑尔根霍恩松峡湾的四个冰川终点处进行了声学测量。测量结果表明，融化产生的声音在靠近冰川终点的水柱上部，冰川冰占主导地位。来自海底融化的融化水和来自冰川的淡水排放在海面附近形成了经过冰川改造的水管。这破坏了通道中传感器间的垂直相干性。但是，对于低频处的空间定位事件所产生的声音，仍保留了整个管道的某些连贯性。总体而言，本研究中的观察结果有助于增进对冰川湾海底融化现象的了解。