An eight-element oil-filled hydrophone array is
used to measure the acoustic field in littoral waters. This
prototype array was deployed during an experiment between
Jeffrey’s Ledge and the Stellwagen Bank region off the coast of
Rockport, Massachusetts USA. During the experiment, several
humpback whale vocalizations, distant ship tonals and high
frequency conventional echosounder pings were recorded.
Visual confirmation of humpback moving in bearing relative to
the array verifies the directional sensing from array
beamforming. During deployment, the array is towed at speeds
varying from 4-7 kts in water depths of roughly 100 m with
conditions at sea state 2 to 3. This array system consists of a
portable winch with array, tow cable and 3 water-resistant
boxes housing electronics. This system is deployed and operated
by 2 crew members onboard a 13 m commercial fishing vessel
during the experiment.
Non-acoustic sensor (NAS) information is obtained to
provide depth, temperature, and heading data using
commercial off the shelf (COTS) components utilizing
RS485/232 data communications. Acoustic data sampling was
performed at 8 kHz, 30 kHz and 100 kHz with near real-time
processing of data and enhanced Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
from beamforming. The electrical system components are
deployed with 3 stacked electronics boxes housing power, data
acquisition and data processing components in water resistant
compartments. A laptop computer with 8 TB of external storage
and an independent Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna
is used to run Passive Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote
Sensing (POAWRS) software providing beamformed
spectrogram data and live NAS data with capability of
capturing several days of data. The acquisition system consists
of Surface Mount Device (SMD) pre-amplifiers with filter to an
analog differential pair shipboard COTS acquisition system.
Pre-amplifiers are constructed using SMD technology where
components are pressure tolerant and potting is not necessary.
Potting of connectors, electronics and hydrophones via 3D
printed molding techniques will be discussed.
Array internal components are manufactured with
Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) 3D printed material to
dampen array vibrations with forward and aft vibration
isolation modules (VIM). Polyurethane foam (PUF) used to
scatter breathing waves and dampen contact from wires inside
the array without attenuating high frequencies and allowing for
significant noise reduction. A single Tygon array section with a
length of 7.5 m and diameter of 38 mm contains 8 transducer
elements with a spacing of 75 cm (1 kHz design frequency). Pre-
amplifiers and NAS modules are affixed using Vectran and steel
wire rope positioned by swaged stops along the strength
member. The tow cable length is 100 m with a diameter of 22
mm that is potted to a hose adapter to break out 12 braided
copper wire twisted pair conductors and terminates the tow
cable Vectran braid.
This array in its current state of development is a low-cost
alternative to obtain quality acoustic data from a towed array
system. Used here for observation of whale vocalizations, this
type of array also has many applications in military sonar and
seismic surveying. Maintenance on the array can be performed
without the use of special facilities or equipment for dehosing
and conveniently uses castor oil as an environmentally safe
pressure compensating and coupling fluid. Array development
including selection of transducers, NAS modules, acoustic
acquisition system, array materials and method of construction
with results from several deployments will be discussed. We also
present beamformed spectrograms containing humpback whale
downsweep moans and underwater blowing (bubbles) sounds
associated with feeding on sand lance (Ammodytes dubius).
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Detection, Localization and Classification of Multiple Mechanized Ocean Vessels over Continental-Shelf Scale Regions with Passive Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing
Multiple mechanized ocean vessels, including both surface ships and submerged vehicles, can be simultaneously monitored over instantaneous continental-shelf scale regions >10,000 km 2 via passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing. A large-aperture densely-sampled coherent hydrophone array system is employed in the Norwegian Sea in Spring 2014 to provide directional sensing in 360 degree horizontal azimuth and to significantly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ship-radiated underwater sound, which improves ship detection ranges by roughly two orders of magnitude over that of a single hydrophone. Here, 30 mechanized ocean vessels spanning ranges from nearby to over 150 km from the coherent hydrophone array, are detected, localized and classified. The vessels are comprised of 20 identified commercial ships and 10 unidentified vehicles present in 8 h/day of Passive Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (POAWRS) observation for two days. The underwater sounds from each of these ocean vessels received by the coherent hydrophone array are dominated by narrowband signals that are either constant frequency tonals or have frequencies that waver or oscillate slightly in time. The estimated bearing-time trajectory of a sequence of detections obtained from coherent beamforming are employed to determine the horizontal location of each vessel using the Moving Array Triangulation (MAT) technique. For commercial ships present in the region, the estimated horizontal positions obtained from passive acoustic sensing are verified by Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of the ship locations found in a historical Automatic Identification System (AIS) database. We provide time-frequency characterizations of the underwater sounds radiated from the commercial ships and the unidentified vessels. The time-frequency features along with the bearing-time trajectory of the detected signals are applied to simultaneously track and distinguish these vessels.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1736749
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10080290
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Remote Sensing
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2072-4292
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1699
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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