We study long-range correlation of diffuse acoustic noise fields in an arbitrary inhomogeneous, moving fluid. The flow reversal theorem is used to show that the cross-correlation function of ambient noise provides an estimate of a combination of the Green’s functions corresponding to sound propagation in opposite directions between the two receivers. Measurements of the noise cross correlation allow one to quantify flow-induced acoustic nonreciprocity and evaluate both spatially averaged flow velocity and sound speed between the two points.

Sound transmission through a water-air interface is normally weak because of a strong mass density contrast. We show that the transparency of the interface increases dramatically at low frequencies. Almost all acoustic energy emitted by a sufficiently shallow monopole source under water is predicted to be radiated into air. Increased transparency at lower frequencies is due to the increasing role of inhomogeneous waves. For sources symmetric with respect to a horizontal plane, transparency is further increased by a destructive interference of direct and surface-reflected waves under water. The phenomenon of anomalous transparency has significant geophysical and biological implications.

A water–air interface is usually an almost perfect reflector of acoustic waves. It was found recently that the interface becomes anomalously transparent and the power flux in the wave transmitted into air increases dramatically when a compact underwater sound source approaches the interface within a fraction of wavelength. The phenomenon is robust with respect to the roughness of the interface and to the variation of air and water parameters and may have significant geophysical and biological implications. This review article discusses the properties of the interface and the physical mechanisms leading to the anomalous transparency.

The idea of similarity between acoustic fields in a moving fluid and in a certain “effective” quiescent medium, first put forward by Lord Rayleigh, proved very helpful in understanding and modeling sound propagation in an atmosphere with winds and in an ocean with currents, as well as in other applications involving flows with small velocity compared to sound speed. Known as effective sound speed approximation, the idea is routinely utilized in the contexts of the ray theory, normal mode representation of the sound field, and the parabolic approximation. Despite the wide use of the concept of effective sound speed in acoustics of moving media, no theoretical justification of Rayleigh’s idea was published that would be independent of the chosen representation of the sound field and uniformly apply to distinct propagation regimes. In this paper, we present such a justification by reducing boundary conditions and a wave equation governing sound fields in the inhomogeneous moving fluid with a slow flow to boundary conditions and a wave equation in a quiescent fluid with effective sound speed and density. The derivation provides insight into validity conditions of the concept of effective quiescent fluid. Introduction of effective density in conjunction with effective sound speed is essential to ensure accurate reproduction of acoustic pressure amplitude in the effective medium. Effective parameters depend on sound speed, flow velocity, and density of the moving fluid as well as on sound propagation direction. Conditions are discussed under which the dependence on the propagation direction can be avoided or relaxed.