Acoustic and oceanographic observations collected during the Nomans Island experiment in Spring 2017

Abstract

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has developed a digital acoustic monitoring (DMON) instrument and low-frequency detection and classification system (LFDCS) to detect and classify baleen whales in near real-time from autonomous platforms. This document provides a detailed description of the data, sensors, and research activities pertaining to the Nomans Island experiment, which was designed to evaluate the range-dependent accuracy of the DMON/LFDCS on mobile and fixed platforms. The experiment took place over a 4-week period (28 Feb to 31 Mar) in the spring of 2017 at a shallow (30m) site approximately 15 km Southwest of Martha’s Vineyard, USA. A DMON/LFDCS-equipped Slocum glider was deployed alongside an extant DMON/LFDCS moored buoy to provide the means to compare system performance between platforms. Vertical and horizontal hydrophone line arrays were deployed in the same area to facilitate call localization. A short transmission loss trial was conducted shortly after the array deployments. The Slocum glider and several sensors mounted to the arrays provided environmental data to characterize variability in water column structure and sound speed during the study period.

Publication
WHOI Technical Report
Date
Next
Previous