Influence of temperature and salinity on the sound speed in shallow waters of Tumaco Bay

Abstract

The present study establishes the horizontal and vertical variation of the sound speed in Tumaco Bay (department of Nariño, Colombia) and describes its behavior from data recorded in field surveys with the aim of identifying the effect of depth, temperature and salinity on its variability. Profiles with an approximate spatial resolution of 500 m were distributed in the study area: 184 water column profiles for May 2019 and 165 profiles for April 2021. The results obtained show a variation in the sound speed between 1526.6 m/s and 1540.3 m/s for the 2019 profiles, and between 1518.5 m/s and 1542.82 m/s for 2021. The difference between the average values obtained for the two dates does not exceed 0.69 m/s. In 2019, the temperature ranged from 25.75 °C to 29.21 °C and no salinity data was obtained. For 2021, the temperature varied between 26.88 °C and 29.84 °C and the salinity values between 11.36 psu and 35.44 psu. In the maps of both dates, there was an area of significant variation in the sound speed, which was associated with the mouth of the Mira River.