1. Enviromental Noise - This presentation will review the Wenz open ocean noise curves. It will then make a clear distinction between ambient and localised noise sources. A graphical representation detailing the relative strengths of ambient noise caused by waves, shipping and so on, and localised natural sources ranging from earthquakes, subsea volcanoes and lighting strike through to whales and dolphins will be discussed. Also included in this representation will be a wide range of man-made sources, including seismic arrays, various kinds of shipping and different sorts of conventional sonar, all of which may contaminate receiving equipment.

An extensive repertoire of sound recordings accompanied by movie sonograms will clearly illustrate the frequency content and relative intensity of ships, shipping activities, sonars of various kinds, seismic detonations, numbers of species of vocalising fish, vocalising seals, walruses and manatees, dolphins and whales.

2. Vessel Radiated Noise - This lecture, which is new for 2010, will examine the source levels and spectra to be expected from a range of modern shipping activities. The material reflects increasing concern over the environmental impact of mankind's activities in the ocean, of which shipping generated noise is an important factor which is considered to be increasing overal ambient noise levels in the ocean. The matter of ship radiated noise is also of importance in Navy activities since it defines the nature of a target from the viewpoint of the sonar-room operator. Finally, ship self-noise is clearly of importance to the sonar designer, since platform noise may be the dominant corrupting influence in some applications.

3. Explosive, Concussive and Vibrational Sources; Mitigation - This lecture details the exciting "bangs and pops" which occur in the ocean, generated both by mankind and, indeed, as a consequence of purely natural phenomena. Explosive activities, for example, occur in naval engagements of one sort or another, but also because of explosive cutting in the decommissioning of offshore structures and in the removal of rocks and reefs consequent upon marine civil engineering activities. Much concern in recent years has been directed towards the consequences of high-impact acoustic pulses in the ocean on all sorts of marine wildlife. In association with this concern have been attempts to devise engineering methods which minimise or "mitigate" high-energy and high-power pulses in the water.

4. Navy Strategies - Commissioning is a major problem for both contractor and client. Project over-runs caused by - amongst other things - overambitious "Specifications to Tender" have become commonplace. The client defines the tactical and strategic requirements. The contractor is constrained both by the laws of physics and by an economic environment which ensures that there is always competition "around the corner". To ameliorate this problem, an engineering "route map", commencing with tactical and strategic requirements and ending with a viable specification for the sonar hardware, is presented. The route map highlights the complex interweaving of links between specification, choice of system, signal processing, mathematical modelling, receiver operating characteristics and, ultimately, the hardware design of the sonar.

This section concludes with an in-depth investigation of the nature and performance of military sonars. It highlights the interplay between active and passive methods of obtaining a target and shows why modern military sonar system developments have emphasised the use of very high pulse power, low-frequency, frequency agile sources: the "Low Frequency Active Sonar" (LFAS).

5. Navy Equipment and Processing - Here, we examine specific hardware and software engineering solutions to the military problem of acquiring sonar targets. Of particular interest will be the Hull Mounted Sonar, in its various forms and the methods which are used to beamform on a target. Propellor vibrations and their analysis will be briefly discussed. The DEMON processing scheme which involves the analysis of modulatings of the noise generated by the cavitating propellors of a surface ship, which can lead to vessel classification and identification, will be investigated in some detail.

6. Measurement Units and Standards - In this lecture, we formalise the baseline requirements associated with all sonar and underwater acoustics measurements made in the laboratory or at a calibration facility or, perhaps, for purposes of Environmental Impact Assessment in the ocean. Careful consideration is given to rationalising the disparate ways of describing and providing units of measurement for sound pulses and signatures in the sea. The intention is to help the different and diverse communities now concerned with underwater acoustics impacts to be able to communicate clearly, without ambiguity or confusion and in a formally correct scientific manner.

7. Environmental Impact Assessment - This lecture discussed the nature of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and describes its conduct both from a practical perspective and within the context of legal and social requirements and guidelines.

8. 1D, 2D Seismic - brief consideration is given to 1D "straight up-and-down" seismic, now largely supplanted in offshore exploration by towed airgun arrays matched with long hydrophone streamer arrays: 2D marine deep seismic. Methods and analysis requirements are discussed in some detail and include discussions of surface spectral modulation, short-delay and log-delay interferers, beamforming and spatial filtering, wavelet analysis and homomorphic deconvolution. Also included are discussions of survey planning, airgun construction, airgun arrays and their tuning, hydrophone array construction and streamer components, array polar response. The lecture concludes with a description of swell-removal filtering, stacking, migration and the use of forward and inverse models in establishing the geology of an oil-bearing region.

9. 3D, 3C Seismic, Modelling and Software - This lecture comences with a description of shallow 3D sesmic for geotecnical engineering evaluation of subsurface structures. 3D deep oil-industry seismic involving multiple parallel airgun and hydrophone arrays is described and the reflection survey discussed. The 2D versus 3D issue is investigated. Advanced streamer technology is examined and solid streamer arrays are described. 3D data processing requirements are investigated and include: 3D migration and 4D or "Time Lapse" surveys. P-waves and S-waves introduce a section on sea-floor vibration and the Three Component sensor. This leads us to consideration of the 3C, 4C sea-floor array. Observations on obtaining borehole data and well-logging are made and we introduce the idea of cross-borehole tomography. Striking 3D examples of the results of advanced numerical processing of seismic data conclude the lecture.

10. Underwater Acoustic Communications - Underwater communications is vitally important for oil-industry activities, well-head telemetry, navy and diver communications and the transmission of scientific data from sea-floor installations. This section commences with the development of a formal procedure for establishing maximum achievable range, required transmission power levels, signal bandwidth and symbol rate for a communication system. The limitations to bit rate are discussed and preferred signalling schemes are determined. The section concludes with a description of numbers of communication links designed to operate in a wide variety of channel conditions and over a wide range of frequencies.

11. Acoustic Instruments - Preferred approximation equations for the prediction of sound speed in particular environmental conditions will be presented and their use discussed. Practical methods of measuring sound speed in the laboratory and in the field will be described. The design of sonars for measuring water flow, including descriptions of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiling (ADCP) will be presented.

12. Underwater Distance Measurement, Navigation and Positioning - In this lecture we consider factors affecting the accuracy of pulse ranging systems using transponders. The various methods of short and long baseline positioning and navigation are discussed. Noise and its impact on positioning is covered. The requirements of dynamic positioning systems are investigated.

13. Biological Noise - This lecture on the sounds made by a wide range of marine animals - "bio" to the submariner - concludes the Advanced Course on a light and entertaining note. We examine the intense but extremely brief clicks produced by snapping shrimp and mantis prawns. Both generate pulses by a cavitation mechanism, the first deliberately, the second as a consequence of the fastest physical attack in the animal kingdom. Both animals, in large numbers, generate sound levels far in excess of normal ambient noise and are thus of considerable significance in the effect they may have on military and survey sonars operating in warm temperate and tropical waters.

The sounds produced by vocalising fish, for purposes of estabishing territory and for sexual attraction are discussed and examples presented. Finally, we turn to the marine mammals and we listen to the complex sounds produced by seals and the biosonar and social or navigational vocalisations of toothed and baleen whales.