Characteristics of Sounds Emitted During High-Resolution Marine Geophysical Surveys

Abstract

Scientific questions regarding the impact of noise in the marine environment have resulted in an increasing number of regulatory requirements and precautionary mitigation strategies to reduce the risk associated with high-resolution marine geophysical surveys performed in U.S. waters. However, data to estimate the ecological risk associated with the operation of a given high-resolution survey system are frequently lacking. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport (NUWCDIVNPT) conducted a study to quantity characteristics of sounds radiated by a variety of commercial marine geophysical survey systems including boomers, sparkers, airguns, chirp profilers, side-scan sonars, and multibeam bathymetric echosounders. Calibrated acoustic data including source levels, intensity spectra, and beam patterns were acquired for a total of 18 different marine survey systems. This report presents the analysis of a calibrated acoustic dataset collected to support future permit applications and in-situ measurements in coastal U.S. waters.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 24, 2016
Accession Number
AD1007504

Entities

People

  • Frank D. Fratantonio
  • Steven E. Crocker

Organizations

  • Naval Undersea Warfare Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Impedance
  • Acoustic Measurement
  • Acoustics
  • Environment
  • Frequency Bands
  • High Resolution
  • Marine Energy
  • Measurement
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Side Looking Sonar
  • Signal Processing
  • Sonar
  • Test Facilities
  • Three Dimensional
  • Transducers
  • Undersea Warfare
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
  • Oceanography.