Can someone explain Thermal Layers?

[Tex]

How to best use them? Thank you.

[McFlurrYs93]

From what i can understand is that thermal layers act like a sound damper and sonar has trouble pennitrating as well. In short its like walking with muffled shoes but for submarines. If this is any help. Im not q expert but this is from what i can understand.

[u2336]

Read page 27 of the CW manual.
But to make it simple, a thermal layer is a frontier between warm and cold water (usually between 100 to 300ft deep - 30 to 100 m), it will create a shadow zone under it where you or your enemies can hide from other subs/ASW that remain above the layer.
So, if you want to evade from an ASW force, dive below the thermal layer and head far from the enemies.
You can use the thermal layer at your advantage as it will increase propagation of sound wave above it. You can dive below to look for hidden subs too...etc.
Hope this helps.

[Grey Man]

Originally posted by u2336:

Read page 27 of the CW manual.
But to make it simple, a thermal layer is a frontier between warm and cold water (usually between 100 to 300ft deep - 30 to 100 m), it will create a shadow zone under it where you or your enemies can hide from other subs/ASW that remain above the layer.
So, if you want to evade from an ASW force, dive below the thermal layer and head far from the enemies.
You can use the thermal layer at your advantage as it will increase propagation of sound wave above it. You can dive below to look for hidden subs too...etc.
Hope this helps.

To expand on this, noise sources in the upper layer are harder to detect in the lower layer, and sources in the lower layer are harder to detect from the upper layer/surface. The exception to this is if you're immediately over/under the source.

[HeinzHarald]

How to best use it depends on what you are up against, how that situation evolves and what you expect to happen. So it's not an easy question to answer. But unless you need to go to periscope depth it is usually a good idea to stay close to the layer so you can react quickly by going below or above it.

That depth also keeps you safe from hitting any surface vessel while at the same time keeping you close to periscope depth and very far from crush depth.

[VX]

I'm finding that the Ambient Noise makes a huge difference in the usefulness of your sensors in game. If there is a storm brewing above you will have a very hard time finding contacts unless they are very close. You will lose contact with your fired torpedoes quickly as well unless you maintain the wire connection.

I became frustrated one game (high ambient noise) trying to find enemy subs and just started to fire off torpedos randomly in hopes to get them to cavitate. When that didn't work I used active sonar which didn't contact anything. The next thing I knew I had two torpedoes heading in my direction. Unfortunately there was a very weak layer so I didn't have anywhere to hide at that point.

So yes the conditions are a huge factor in how you will proceed with your attack. Shallow water with no layer means you are going to have one heck of a hard time surviving. It would be nice to be able to retreat and re-intercept on more favorable terms if possible.

[Tex]

Thank you everyone, I appreciate your insight.

[Mallear]

I always thought beeing beneath the layer is bad idea since the arrival of towed array. Going from my experience with Command: modern air/naval ops here: Hunters will usually tow their arrays in the lower layer while having their own sensors in the layer above (ships sail on the surface= upper layer). Dip sonars and Boys should also operate on the lower layer. In command the best position to be is just inside the upper and lower layers.... with the side effect that you can heir much worse yourself

[Outis]

@ Dr. Hal

Yes that is a real life technique that is not modelled in this game. Essentially the towed array is at the same depth as your sub. So you cannot 'split' the thermal layer. You have to bounce back and forth over time to detect above and below the thermal layer.

[HeinzHarald]

Originally posted by Dr. Hal Emmerich:

I always thought beeing beneath the layer is bad idea since the arrival of towed array. Going from my experience with Command: modern air/naval ops here: Hunters will usually tow their arrays in the lower layer while having their own sensors in the layer above (ships sail on the surface= upper layer). Dip sonars and Boys should also operate on the lower layer. In command the best position to be is just inside the upper and lower layers.... with the side effect that you can heir much worse yourself

I don't know how the AI operates here and how much the tactics have evolved from the time periods in the game, but towed arrays certainly diminish the positive effects of being below the layer. Even subs often do this IRL where they are at or just above the layer and trail the towed array beneath the layer.

But keep in mind that above the layer your sounds travel a lot better along the horizontal axis (to a point) bouncing between the layer and the surface. Beneath the layer you may run a higher risk at being detected at extreme distances because of the pressure eventually bending the sound upwards, but less a bit closer in. Though all of this is of course affected by the layer strength and ocean depth.