The BELLHOP underwater acoustics ray tracing tool

Overview

BELLHOP is a beam/ray tracing model by Michael B. Porter (Heat, Light, and Sound Research, Inc.) for predicting acoustic pressure fields in ocean environments. The model accounts for:

• Sound speed profiles (SSPs) varying with depth and range
• Ocean boundaries (surface and seafloor) with complex reflection properties
• Acoustic sources and receiver arrays in arbitrary geometries
• Both 2D (range-depth) and 3D (range-depth-azimuth) propagation modeling

The core algorithms implement: - Geometric ray tracing - Gaussian beam superposition for smooth field predictions - Arrival time and amplitude calculations - Coherent and incoherent field summation

Documentation

The BELLHOP code base includes extensive historic documentation from the original Acoustics Toolbox project and subsequent development efforts:

User guides

• Getting started - New intro guides for both Fortran and (mostly) Python interfaces
• Python documentation - Detailed API interface to Bellhop using Python
• BELLHOP User Guide - Original guide for 2D acoustic modeling
• BELLHOP3D User Guide - Original guide for 3D acoustic modeling with azimuthal coupling

Text file formats

• Environmental File Format - Detailed specification of input environment file
• Reflection Coefficient Files - Format for specifying boundary reflection properties
• Range-Dependent Sound Speed Profiles - Sound speed profile specification
• Bathymetry Files - Bathymetry data format specification

Original Acoustics Toolbox documentation

• Original Repository Information - General information about the Acoustics Toolbox project structure
• Acoustics Toolbox Index - Overview of the complete Acoustics Toolbox suite
• Field Documentation - General field computation methods
• Field Processing - Field output processing and analysis
• 3D Field Methods - Three-dimensional field computation approaches

PDF documentation

• BELLHOP3D User Guide (PDF) - Comprehensive PDF guide for 3D modeling
• Technical Report HLS-2010-1 - Detailed technical documentation

Additional material

• Fortran Coverage - Code coverage analysis for Fortran acoustic simulation components
• Python Coverage - Code coverage analysis for Python API and utilities
• University of California Changes - Detailed technical changes, bug fixes, and algorithmic improvements made by the UC San Diego team
• Acoustics Toolbox Changes - Historical change log from the original Acoustics Toolbox development

Repository / development documentation

• Technical information
• Coverage details