This paper presents the effect of axial acoustic fields on air atomized sprays. In these experiments a spray of ethanol is established in a transparent test section in which an acoustic field is setup using acoustic drivers. Visual observation shows that a high amplitude acoustic field (160 dB) reduces the length of the spray. The spray velocity field was characterized by PIV measurements. The spray velocities are considerably reduced in the presence of the acoustic oscillations, indicating the presence of smaller droplets. It is seen that the presence of acoustic oscillations increases the spray cone angle. There is considerable entrainment of air into the spray in the presence of acoustic oscillations. Multilayer intensity-layer PIV indicated that small droplets followed the vortex shearing where as the larger droplets penetrated the shear flow. © 2003 by R. I. Sujith.