NE Frasier FY19 DURIP
Abstract
Navy-supported monitoring and research efforts aim to characterize the vocalizations of marine mammal species present in operating areas (OPAREAS), determine their seasonal presence, and evaluate the potential for impact from naval training. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an effective means for monitoring mammal populations and acoustic conditions at the spatial and temporal scales dictated by naval training activities. High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARPs), and their precursers known as Acoustic Recording Packages (ARPs) have been used for autonomous monitoring and research of marine mammal populations on Navy ranges for over 20 years. Since its inception, iterative technical research and development have continuously advanced HARP technology to keep it in stride with industry technological advances in hardware, data storage, power consumption, and signal processing techniques. HARPs are currently unmatched in their ability to autonomously record and archive high-quality, continuous, calibrated, broadband (10 Hz - 160 kHz) passive acoustic data for over a year at a time between service intervals. The Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography currently maintains a fleet of 25 HARPs used for Navy projects. A purchase of hardware to upgrade this fleet of instruments with a low-power mass data storage module based on Secure Digital (SD) memory cards is proposed. This upgrage will reduce HARP power consumption by one-half, greatly-reducing battery costs, which currently make up approximately 50% of standard annual HARP refurbishign expenses. In addition, the low-power upgrade will simplify instruments to improve reliability, support higher lossless data compression and enable higher sampling rates over long periods. The reduced power requirements allow the standard HARP data-logging electronics and battery configuration for a full-bandwidth, 1 year deployment to be fully-contained within a single pressure case where previously two were required. The resulting HARP with SD card data storage mooring is small enough to be deployed and recovered from a small boat hand-over-hand without any reduction in recording performance (sample rate, recording quality, and recording duration). By reducing battery costs, field expenses, and hardware needs, this enhancement is expected to pay for itself many times over through future funding long-term PAM recording cost savings.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912697
Entities
People
- Kaitlin E Frasier
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego