A mathematical description of ambient sea noise is presented that takes into account the two dominant sources—surface agitation and distant shipping. The contribution from surface agitation is shown to be linearly dependent upon the logarithm of wind speed for depths between 400 and 2500 fathoms at several sites near Bermuda. When this is taken into account, the ambient‐noise data that include both sources can be analyzed to determine the individual levels of the sources. Also, the standard deviations of the two sources can be determined from the standard deviations of the measured levels.