Abstract:
Due to harsh environmental conditions, long-term, real-time Arctic ambient noise is extremely difficult to acquire. Since 1988, U.S. and Canadian investigators have been collecting data from temporary ice camps in the Lincoln Sea, northwest of Greenland. During the spring of 1996 a joint U.S./Canadian multiple-aperture, bottom-mounted acoustic array was deployed in the Lincoln Sea under the Arctic sea ice and fiber-optically cabled back to shore over 100 miles away. The data is being recorded in real time and the system is batteried for a 3- to 5-yr life. These data will support many aspects of noise characterization including noise statistics, seismic content, ice signatures, and marine mammals as well as contribute to global scale acoustics and ocean parameter estimation. A brief history of the U.S. technology development, the resulting array configuration and status, and the data analysis, archiving and dissemination plan will be presented. [Work supported by ONR and SPAWAR.]