National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
United States Department of Commerce


 

FY 2016

Palaoa: The perennial acoustic observatory in the Antarctic Ocean—Real-time eavesdropping on the Antarctic underwater soundscape

Klinck, H., L. Kindermann, and O. Boebel

In Listening in the Ocean, W.W.L. Au and M.O. Lammers (eds.), Modern Acoustic and Signal Processing, 207–219, doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-3176-7_8 (2016)


The Perennial Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean (PALAOA) was developed to study the underwater vocal behavior of cetaceans and pinnipeds and to monitor ambient noise levels in the Southern Ocean. Establishing an autonomous long-term observatory in Antarctica is challenging mainly because of the harsh weather conditions and logistic constraints. The project goal was to build an autonomously operating, passive-acoustic observatory which allows scientists (1) to reliably and continuously record the Antarctic underwater soundscape year-round, (2) to record all vocalizations produced by marine mammals in the study area (frequency range of the recordings: 10 Hz to 96 kHz), (3) to locate vocalizing marine mammals and other underwater sound sources, (4) to obtain information on ambient noise levels in the area, and (5) to access and analyze the incoming acoustic data stream in real time at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) located in Bremerhaven, Germany.



Feature Publications | Outstanding Scientific Publications

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