The processes of sound scattering at the ocean surface and bottom

In order to have a firm basis for the prediction of reverberation or back-scattering of sound in the sea, field measurements leading to values for a back-scattering coefficient of the sea surface and bottom have been made. Variation of this coefficient with angle of incidence of the sound beam provides some interesting clues as to the back-scattering processes which operate...

Oceanic Ambient Noise as a Background to Acoustic Neutrino Detection

Ambient noise measured in the deep ocean is studied in the context of a search for signals from ultra-high energy cosmic ray neutrinos. The spectral shape of the noise at the relevant high frequencies is found to be very stable for an extensive data set collected over several months from 49 hydrophones mounted near the bottom of the ocean at ~1600 m depth. The slopes of the ambient noise spectra above 15 kHz are found to roll-off faster than the -6 dB/octave seen in Knudsen spectra. A model attributing the source to an uniform distribution of surface noise that includes frequency-dependent absorption at large depth is found to fit the data well up to 25 kHz. This depth dependent model should therefore be used in analysis methods of acoustic neutrino pulse detection that require the expected noise spectra.Comment: Minor changes. Submitted to PRD. 5 pages, 7 figure

Development of Acoustic Sensors for the ANTARES Experiment

In order to study the possibility of acoustic detection of ultra-high energy neutrinos in water, our group is planning to deploy and operate an array of acoustic sensors using the ANTARES Neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, acoustic sensor hardware has to be developed which is both capable of operation under the hostile conditions of the deep sea and at the same time provides the high sensitivity necessary to detect the weak pressure signals resulting from the neutrino's interaction in water. In this paper, two different approaches to building such sensors, as well as performance studies in the laboratory and in situ, are presented.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the ARENA 2005 Worksho

A Very Sensitive 21cm Survey for Galactic High-Velocity HI

Very sensitive HI 21cm observations have been made in 860 directions at dec >= -43deg in search of weak, Galactic, high-velocity HI emission lines at moderate and high Galactic latitudes. One-third of the observations were made toward extragalactic objects. The median 4-sigma detection level is NHI = 8x10^{17} cm^-2 over the 21' telescope beam. High-velocity HI emission is detected in 37% of the directions; about half of the lines could not have been seen in previous surveys. The median FWHM of detected lines is 30.3 km/s. High- velocity HI lines are seen down to the sensitivity limit of the survey implying that there are likely lines at still lower values of NHI. The weakest lines have a kinematics and distribution on the sky similar to that of the strong lines, and thus do not appear to be a new population. Most of the emission originates from objects which are extended over several degrees; few appear to be compact sources. At least 75%, and possibly as many as 90%, of the lines are associated with one of the major high-velocity complexes. The Magellanic Stream extends at least 10 deg to higher Galactic latitude than previously thought and is more extended in longitude as well. Although there are many lines with low column density, their numbers do not increase as rapidly as NHI^-1, so most of the HI mass in the high-velocity cloud phenomenon likely resides in the more prominent clouds. The bright HI features may be mere clumps within larger structures, and not independent objects.Comment: 88 pages includes 22 figures Accepted for Publication in ApJ Suppl. June 200

Integration of Acoustic Neutrino Detection Methods into ANTARES

The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope is a water Cherenkov detector currently under construction in the Mediterranean Sea. It is also designed to serve as a platform for investigations of the deep-sea environment. In this context, the ANTARES group at the University of Erlangen will integrate acoustic sensors within the infrastructure of the experiment. With this dedicated setup, tests of acoustic particle detection methods and deep-sea acoustic background studies shall be performed. The aim of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of a future acoustic neutrino telescope in the deep sea operating in the ultra-high energy regime. In these proceedings, the implementation of the project is described in the context of the premises and challenges set by the physics of acoustic particle detection and the integration into an existing infrastructure.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the International ARENA Workshop, May 28-30th, 2006, University of Northumbri

Using dose-response functions to improve calculations of the impact of anthropogenic noise

Funding: Office of Naval Research, Grant/Award Numbers: N00014‐12‐1‐0204 and N00014‐15‐1‐2553; Scottish Funding Council, Grant/Award Number: HR09011.1. Estimating the number of animals impacted by a stressor typically involves combining a dose-response function with information about the distribution of animals and of the stressor. 2. Regulators often prefer a single threshold to a full dose-response function, but much of the variability observed in the threshold at which different individuals respond to a stressor is an inherent characteristic of populations that needs to be taken into account to predict effects of stressors. When selecting an exposure threshold, regulators need information on the proportion of the population that will be protected. 3. Regulatory processes that calculate the number of animals impacted must draw from the dose-response function, the actual distribution of the animals, and a model mapping how the stressor intensity declines with distance from the source. Ignoring any of these factors can lead to significant errors in estimates of the area and numbers of animals affected. 4. This paper focuses on behavioural responses of marine mammals to anthropogenic sound and demonstrates that a common approach of selecting the threshold at which half of the animals respond (RLp50) grossly underestimates the number of animals affected. We present an example, using a published dose-response function, where the number affected is under-estimated by a factor of 280. Results would be similar for any stressor whose strength decreases following an inverse-square function as it dilutes into the environment. 5. This paper presents a method to use a dose-response function to derive a more accurate estimate of animals affected and to set a threshold (the Effective Response Level) that corrects the problem with the RLp50 estimate. 6. Estimates of effects of stressors should include estimates of uncertainty, which can be used to adapt thresholds to different policy contexts and conservation problems.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Calibration sphere for low-frequency parametric sonars

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 121 (2007): 1482-1490, doi:10.1121/1.2434244.The problem of calibrating parametric sonar systems at low difference frequencies used in backscattering applications is addressed. A particular parametric sonar is considered: the Simrad TOPAS PS18 Parametric Sub-bottom Profiler. This generates difference-frequency signals in the band 0.5–6 kHz. A standard target is specified according to optimization conditions based on maximizing the target strength consistent with the target strength being independent of orientation and the target being physically manageable. The second condition is expressed as the target having an immersion weight less than 200 N. The result is a 280-mm-diam sphere of aluminum. Its target strength varies from −43.4 dB at 0.5 kHz to −20.2 dB at 6 kHz. Maximum excursions in target strength over the frequency band due to uncertainty in material properties of the sphere are of order ±0.1 dB. Maximum excursions in target strength due to variations in mass density and sound speed of the immersion medium are larger, but can be eliminated by attention to the hydrographic conditions. The results are also applicable to the standard-target calibration of conventional sonars operating at low-kilohertz frequencies

Manatee (Trichechus manatus) vocalization usage in relation to environmental noise levels

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 125 (2009): 1806-1815, doi:10.1121/1.3068455.Noise can interfere with acoustic communication by masking signals that contain biologically important information. Communication theory recognizes several ways a sender can modify its acoustic signal to compensate for noise, including increasing the source level of a signal, its repetition, its duration, shifting frequency outside that of the noise band, or shifting the timing of signal emission outside of noise periods. The extent to which animals would be expected to use these compensation mechanisms depends on the benefit of successful communication, risk of failure, and the cost of compensation. Here we study whether a coastal marine mammal, the manatee, can modify vocalizations as a function of behavioral context and ambient noise level. To investigate whether and how manatees modify their vocalizations, natural vocalization usage and structure were examined in terms of vocalization rate, duration, frequency, and source level. Vocalizations were classified into two call types, chirps and squeaks, which were analyzed independently. In conditions of elevated noise levels, call rates decreased during feeding and social behaviors, and the duration of each call type was differently influenced by the presence of calves. These results suggest that ambient noise levels do have a detectable effect on manatee communication and that manatees modify their vocalizations as a function of noise in specific behavioral contexts.This research was supported by a P.E.O. Scholar Award and National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship awarded to Jennifer Miksis