Acoustic vector sensor beamforming reduces masking from underwater industrial noise during passive monitoring

Masking from industrial noise can hamper the ability to detect marine mammal sounds near industrial operations, whenever conventional (pressure sensor) hydrophones are used for passive acoustic monitoring. Using data collected from an autonomous recorder with directional capabilities (Directional Au...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 139; no. 4; pp. EL105 - EL111
Main Authors Thode, Aaron M., Kim, Katherine H., Norman, Robert G., Blackwell, Susanna B., Greene, Charles R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.04.2016
Subjects
Acoustics - instrumentation
Animals
Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Equipment Design
Models, Theoretical
Motion
Noise - adverse effects
Oceans and Seas
Oil and Gas Industry
Pressure
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Sound Spectrography
Time Factors
Transducers, Pressure
Vocalization, Animal
Water
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Summary:Masking from industrial noise can hamper the ability to detect marine mammal sounds near industrial operations, whenever conventional (pressure sensor) hydrophones are used for passive acoustic monitoring. Using data collected from an autonomous recorder with directional capabilities (Directional Autonomous Seafloor Acoustic Recorder), deployed 4.1 km from an arctic drilling site in 2012, the authors demonstrate how conventional beamforming on an acoustic vector sensor can be used to suppress noise arriving from a narrow sector of geographic azimuths. Improvements in signal-to-noise ratio of up to 15 dB are demonstrated on bowhead whale calls, which were otherwise undetectable using conventional hydrophones.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.4946011