Electromagnetic fields in air produced by underwater magnetic dipoles with attitude variation in real marine environment

ABSTRACT

Wireless data transmission from seawater to air is a challenging and valuable research hotspot. Ideally and theoretically, underwater electromagnetic (EM) waves can propagate across sea-air interface and the trans-media component in air can reach a great distance. However, in real marine environment, underwater antenna's attitude varies due to water current. In this paper, EM fields in air produced by underwater magnetic dipoles with varying attitude are investigated. The field distributions and intensity variations in air are presented. Experiments on sea were conducted and the data are compared with theoretical simulations. The results show that field in air is greatly affected by underwater antenna's attitude, and the effect is more obvious in vertical magnetic dipole than in horizontal one. In conclusion, it is indicated that EM waves have a great potential in wireless data transmission from seawater to air even if underwater antenna would have some attitude variation.

KEYWORDS:

• Magnetic dipole moment
• real marine environment
• trans-media propagation
• underwater EM wave
• wireless data transmission

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51809213], Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number G2018KY0303], and Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China [grant number 2019JQ-160].

Notes on contributors

Honglei Wang

Honglei Wang received the B.S. degree in applied electronic engineering and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in underwater acoustic engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi'an, China, in 2009, 2012, and 2015, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the School of Marine Science and Technology, NPU. His research interests include EM wave propagation in/across lossy media, and underwater wireless communication

Kunde Yang

Kunde Yang received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in underwater acoustic engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi'an, China, in 1996, 1999, and 2003, respectively. Since 2003, he has been with the School of Marine Science and Technology, NPU, where he is currently a Full Professor and Vice Dean of the school. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Visiting Scholar with the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. His research interests include ocean acoustic modeling, signal processing, microwave propagation, etc.

Yixin Yang

Yixin Yang received the B.S. degree in applied electronic engineering and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in underwater acoustic engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi'an, China, in 1997, 1999, and 2002, respectively. From 2002 to 2004, he was a Research Fellow with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Since 2004, he has been with the School of Marine Science and Technology, NPU, where he became a Professor in 2006. He is currently an Assistant President of NPU. His research interests include acoustic array signal processing, spectral estimation, and their applications.