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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                            Underwater ultrasonic topological waveguides by metal additive manufacturing
                        
                    
    
            Acoustic topological systems explore topological behaviors of phononic crystals. Currently, most of the experimentally demonstrated acoustic topological systems are for airborne acoustic waves and work at or below the kHz frequency range. Here, we report an underwater acoustic topological waveguide that works at the MHz frequency range. The 2D topological waveguide was formed at the interface of two hexagonal lattices with different pillar radii that were fabricated with metal additive manufacturing. We demonstrated the existence of edge stages both numerically and in underwater experiments. Our work has potential applications in underwater/biomedical sensing, energy transport, and acoustofluidics. 
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                            - Award ID(s):
- 1720415
- PAR ID:
- 10407351
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Volume:
- 120
- Issue:
- 14
- ISSN:
- 0003-6951
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 141702
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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