Improving reconstruction of sound speed profiles using a self-organizing map method with multi-source observations

The sound speed profile (SSP) is a key dynamic factor affecting underwater acoustic propagation, and it is crucial to obtain SSP accurately in real time. A new scheme to improve the reconstruction performance of sound speed profile with multi-source observations using self-organizing map (SOM) method was proposed in this study. Given that the inverted echo sounder (IES) data and mix layer depth (MLD) could respectively provide information on the integrated properties of the water column and SSP structure, we included the two parameters as the priori information to improve the SSP reconstruction performance of the SOM method. With the advantage of merging multi-source information, the SOM method showed significant improvement when including IES data and MLD as the priori information to reconstruct SSPs in the dynamic Kuroshio Extension region.