Second-generation Controllers for Distributed Vertical Line Array (DVLA) Underwater Acoustic Receivers
Abstract
A Distributed Vertical Line Array (DVLA) receiver developed by my group at the ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography has become the workhorse in a series of recent ONR-fundedexperiments to study deep-water acoustic propagation and ambient noise. The DVLA is made up"of distributed, self-recording Hydrophone Modules with timing and scheduling provided by asmall number of central controllers, cal"led DSTARs. The enabling technologies for this approachwere (1) the availability of flash memory modules that can store gigabytes of data and be locatedin a small pressure case at each hydrophone and (2) inductively coupled modems that allow lowbandwidth communi"cation for command, control, and time synchronization between the centralcontrollers and the Hydrophone Modules over standard ocean""ographic mooring wire. TheHydrophone Modules were of entirely new design, but the DSTAR controllers were amodification of much old"er four-channel Simple Tomographic Acoustic Receivers (STARs) usedin previous deep-water acoustic experiments. It is no longer poss"ible to maintain the existingDSTAR controllers, as many of the critical components are obsolete and not available. Design ofa mode""rn DSTAR2 has been proceeding at a low level with ONR funding for the past severalyears. We propose here to complete the design, pr""ototyping, and testing of the DSTAR2. Werequest funding to construct five (5) new DSTAR2 controllers and two (2) DSTAR deck units,"replacing the outmoded DSTAR design with a second-generation controller for use in futureONR-funded experiments. We anticipate that data obtained in future ocean acoustic experimentsfrom upgraded DVLAs will contribute to the education and research of graduate st"udents andpost-graduate researchers, just as the data obtained using the existing DVLA has.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 03, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141713010
Entities
People
- Peter F. Worcester
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego