Shallow water acoustics (SWA), the study of how low and medium frequency sound propagates and scatters on the continental shelves of the worlds oceans, has both technical interest and a large number of practical applications. Technically, shallow water poses an interesting medium for the study of acoustic scattering, inverse theory, and propagation physics in a complicated oceanic waveguide. Practically, shallow water acoustics has interest for geophysical exploration, marine mammal studies, and naval applications. Additionally, one notes the very interdisciplinary nature of shallow water acoustics, including acoustical physics, physical oceanography, marine geology, and marine biology. In this specialized volume the authors, all of whom have extensive at-sea experience in US and Russian research efforts, have tried to summarize the main experimental, theoretical, and computational results in shallow water acoustics, with an emphasis on providing physical insight into the topics presented.
About the Author:

Dr. James F. Lynch was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on June 3, 1950. He obtained his B.S. in Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978. He then worked for three years at the Applied Research Laboratories of the University of Texas at Austin (ARL/UT) from 1978 to 1981, after which he joined the scientific staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He has worked at WHOI since then, and currently holds the position of Senior Scientist in the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department. His research specialty areas are ocean acoustics and acoustical oceanography. He also greatly enjoys occasional forays into physical oceanography, marine geology, and marine biology. Dr. Lynch is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a Fellow of IEEE, the former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, and present Editor of JASA-EL. He recently received the 2009 Walter Munk Award in Oceanography from the Oceanography Society and the Secretary of the Navy. His hobbies include kempo karate and amateur astronomy and meteorology.

B.Katsnelson was born in Kursk, Russia on April 2, 1950. He obtained his B.S. in Physics from Voronezh State University in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Voronezh University in 1976. He then worked in the Physics Dept of Voronezh University as a Senior Scientist and then as Professor up to now. His research areas at different times were the theory of the interaction of laser fields with atoms and molecules, the propagation of electromagnetic waves in plasma and currently sound propagation in the ocean. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and member of the Russian Acoustical Society. His hobbies are tennis and classical music.

Prof. Valery G. Petnikov was born in Moscow, Russia on December 20, 1947. He obtained his B.S. /M.S. in Physics and his Ph.D in Physics and Mathematics from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, faculty of Physics in 1972 and in 1977 correspondingly. He obtained his Doctor of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics from the General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000. After the Post-Graduate Course at the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, faculty of Physics he worked at O.Yu. Shmidt Institute of Physics of Earth, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Moscow) from 1975 to 1979. He then worked at the Hydrophysics Laboratory in the P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Moscow) from1979 to 1982 and at the Laboratory of Acoustic Sensing of the Ocean in the General Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Moscow) from1982 to 1998. He has been Head of the Laboratory from 1986-1998. In 1998, he joined Wave Research Center of General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) as Head of the same Laboratory, Leading Research Associate. His scientific interests are underwater acoustics, specifically: shallow water acoustics, arctic acoustics, acoustic tomography and acoustics signal processing. He has more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Petnikov is a Fellow of the Russian Acoustical Society. He is also a Real member of the editorial board of the Acoustical Physics journal.