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Speed of sound in sea water (UNESCO equation)

Description

The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave propagating through an elastic medium. The speed of sound in seawater depends on pressure , temperature (a change of 1 °C ~ 4 m/s), and salinity (a change of 1‰ ~ 1 m/s). Empirical equations have been derived to accurately calculate sound speed from these variables. One of them with reasonable accuracy for the world’s oceans often known as UNESCO equation is due to Chen and Millero (1977)

Related formulas

Variables

cSeaWaterSpeed of sound (dimensionless)
CWEmpirical coefficient (must be precalculated) (dimensionless)
ATPEmpirical coefficient (must be precalculated) (dimensionless)
SSalinity in Practical Salinity Units - ppt (dimensionless)
BTPEmpirical coefficient (must be precalculated) (dimensionless)
DTPEmpirical coefficient (must be precalculated) (dimensionless)