The impact of underwater acoustics on ocean exploration in the XXI century

Themes such as ocean monitoring, deep sea research, global warming, marine pollution hazards, seafloor geological resources, marine life preservation, etc., are en vogue in nowadays and are both the last frontier represented by the deep ocean and the image of the collective concern about its preservation and sustainable exploration. The community of underwater acousticians is well aware of the key role played by acoustics in these challenges, but that idea is not always shared with the common european citizen. Time has come to deliver the message of the importance of underwater acoustics as a major area in marine technology, and its impact in ocean exploration for approaching the main concerns enumerated above. This 8th edition of the ECUA aims to be the turning point for underwater acoustics and its applications to reach the european citizen.

This conference will include keynotes, invited papers, contributed papers and poster presentations covering all areas of Underwater Acoustics. The organizing committee invites prospective authors to submit contributions(*) under the following topics:

1. Acoustic modelling: forward models, solvers, high-frequency models, model-data comparison.
2. Acoustic propagation: arctic, reverberation, scattering and ambient noise.
3. Bioacoustics: fisheries, marine environment, benthic labs.
4. Data assimilation: in situ measurements, tank experiments, acoustic oceanography.
5. Geoacoustics: seafloor characterisation, imaging, inverse methods
6. Instrumentation: transducers, calibration, buoys, networks and sensors, vehicle navigation.
7. Ocean acoustics: tomography, acoustic imaging, inversion techniques, ocean experiments.
8. Sonar: low and high frequency sonar, multistatic and multibeam, sonar applications.
9. Underwater communications: long range acoustics, shallow water communications.

After the conference, authors of selected papers will be invited to submit full size papers to a special journal issue, under a full peer review process.

(*) The working language of the conference will be English. Simultaneous translation will not be available.