Abstract:

Passive acoustic monitoring from two autonomous surface vehicles, ASV Global C-Enduro and C-Worker models, was conducted from June 23- July 2, 2015. The C-Enduro towed a 55 meter, two-element array and the C-Worker towed a 220 meter, two-element array during survey efforts. Acoustic data was recorded while the vehicles were either under tow by the R/V Pelican or under autonomous power. Raw data was collected at 500 kHz, in 16-bit wav-format files. Concurrent CTD and GPS data collected by the ASVs during acoustic surveys are also included.

Suggested Citation:

Chris Pierpoint. 2017. Autonomous surface vehicle-towed passive acoustic data from the Northern Gulf of Mexico June 24-30, 2015. Distributed by: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7222RSW

Publications:

Ziegwied, A. T., Dobbin, V., Dyer, S., Pierpoint, C., & Sidorovskaia, N. (2016). Using Autonomous Surface Vehicles for Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM). OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey. doi:10.1109/oceans.2016.7761380

Purpose:

Acoustic data was collected using autonomous surface vehicles towing a two element hydrophone array to determine whale and dolphin presence during buoy deployments and visual surveys. Real-time analysis was performed through Pamguard in order to localize calling animals to assist with visual detection at the surface. Together, raw and analyzed data, will be used to compare ability of detection between three passive acoustic monitoring platforms.

Data Parameters and Units:

number of channels, sample rate (Hz), sample size (bits), voltage (volts), bit depth, latitude (decimal degrees), longitude (decimal degrees), heading (degrees true), speed (knots), time (UTC), RecID = a unique identifier for each recording, Platform = identifies the ASV (CW = C_Worker, CE = C_Enduro), FileName = wav-format file's name, whic includes a datetime stamp for the beginning of the recording, SizeMb = size of the file in Mb, DurMin = duration of the file in decimal minutes, StartUTC = start date time referenced to Coordinated Universal Time, EndUTC = end date time referenced to Coordinated Universal Time, Bitrate = data transfer rate (kbit/s), SamplingRateHz = sampling rate (Hz), BitDepth = bit depth (sample size) (bits), Channels = number of channels recorded, Project = project name, RecSys = recording system name, PassBandHz = nominal analogue filter pass band prior to digitisation, CableLenM = length of tow cable deployed (including array section) (m), stLat = start position latitude (decimal degrees, WGS84), stLon = start position longitude (decimal degrees, WGS84), enLat = end position latitude (decimal degrees, WGS84), enLon = end position longitude (decimal degrees, WGS84)

Individual Files: