An Ocean Bottom Hydrophone instrument for seismic refraction experiments in the deep ocean

Tests of a new Ocean Bottom Hydrophone (obh) instrument have recently been completed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This instrument is designed to float 3 m above the seafloor at depths of up to 6100 m for periods of up to 10 days and continuously records the output of a single hydrophone on a four-channel 0.064 cm/s (1/40 in./s) analog magnetic tape recorder. This instrument has an acoustic transponder and release system and is designed primarily for multiple deployments as a fixed ocean bottom receiver for seismic refraction work.Contribution No. 4174 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.     

Analysis of finite-duration wide-band frequency sweep signals forocean tomography

A group of amplitude and frequency modulated signals which generate narrow synthesized pulses are described. The pulse-compression properties of these signals should approach those of maximal (M) sequence phase-modulated signals now commonly used in ocean experiments. These amplitude-tapered linear frequency-sweep (chirp) type signals should be accurately reproducible with most acoustic sources since they have controllable limited-bandwidth frequency content and differentiable phase. The Doppler response of the signals is calculated using a wideband approach, where the frequency shift from relative motion is not constant throughout the waveform. The resultant Doppler effect on the matched-filter output is a function of the signal duration. The signals are suitable for use with tunable resonant transducers, and have adequate Doppler response for use with Lagrangian ocean drifters     

Seismic reflection profiling with a deep-towed vertical hydrophone array

A seismic reflection profiling system consisting of a 264 m long, deep-towed, 15-element, end-fire, vertical array and a 40 cubic inch airgun was successfully used to profile a sediment pond in the trough of the inactive segment of the Kane Fracture Zone close to it's intersection with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 24° N. The increased signal to noise ratio achieved with the array demonstrates that it is a useful tool for detailed seismic profiling in areas of rough topography in the deep ocean.Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution No. 5443.     

Recent developments in ocean data telemetry at Woods HoleOceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is developing techniques for telemetering oceanographic data from the deep ocean to the laboratory in near real time. Three general approaches that provide a link between subsurface instruments and surface buoys equipped with satellite transmitters are being pursued. These approaches are: cabled systems that use electromechanical cables to connect subsurface instruments to a central controller; high data rate acoustic modems to transfer information between multiple remote units and a central controller; and inductive modems that use standard mechanical mooring lines as the transmission medium between instruments deployed on the mooring and a central controller. These telemetry systems are targeted for general use by the oceanographic community and are designed to be power efficient, low in cost, and capable of integration with most oceanographic data collection systems     

A New Method for Matched Field Localization Based on Two-Hydrophone

The conventional matched field processing (MFP) uses large vertical arrays to locate an underwater acoustic target. However, the use of large vertical arrays increases equipment and computational cost, and causes some problems such as element failures, and array tilting to degrade the localization performance. In this paper, the matched field localization method using two-hydrophone is proposed for underwater acoustic pulse signals with an unknown emitted signal waveform. Using the received signal of hydrophones and the ocean channel pulse response which can be calculated from an acoustic propagation model, the spectral matrix of the emitted signal for different source locations can be estimated by employing the method of frequency domain least squares. The resulting spectral matrix of the emitted signal for every grid region is then multiplied by the ocean channel frequency response matrix to generate the spectral matrix of replica signal. Finally, the matched field localization using two-hydrophone for underwater acoustic pulse signals of an unknown emitted signal waveform can be estimated by comparing the difference between the spectral matrixes of the received signal and the replica signal. The simulated results from a shallow water environment for broadband signals demonstrate the significant localization performance of the proposed method. In addition, the localization accuracy in five different cases are analyzed by the simulation trial, and the results show that the proposed method has a sharp peak and low sidelobes, overcoming the problem of high sidelobes in the conventional MFP due to lack of the number of elements.     

Some observational results of sea storm current

INTRODUCTIONDr. Hollister, a marine geologist of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, firstpointed out that there was ocean storm current in the ocean. He found out the wavy texture inthe seabed core samples, and suggested that this wavy texture was caused by the high speedsea current in remote antiquity. He then suggested a bold hypothesis that there existed a benthic storm current near the ocean bottom, and presented this hypothesis at the IUGG confer-ence held at San Francisco…     

Exploiting phase fluctuations to improve temporal coherence

A special-purpose definition is proposed for phase fluctuations to overcome the obstacle of unpredictable dynamic changes in the phase angle. This definition implies a specific time history for each phase sample and any deviation is termed a phase fluctuation. Its application to acoustic data led to the development of a technique for temporally aligning the phase angles of the acoustic pressure phasors. This alignment process transforms the signal phasors to the real half-space of a rotated complex plane, while the corresponding noise is distributed with random phase angles. Signal processing conducted in the rotated plane improves the temporal coherence of the signals without significantly altering the incoherence of the noise. Coherent attenuation and cancellation of signals is common with temporal coherence and vector averaging. These were eliminated when the aligned-phase angles were substituted for the original unaligned phase angles. Thus, the transformation produces a net temporal coherence gain. Furthermore, it significantly improves the robustness of the signal processor to source and receiver motion. An automatic identifier of signals in the transformed plane also is introduced. Signal identification is based on aligned-phase angle temporal coherence, which significantly improves identification of signals. Results are included for both ocean and atmosphere acoustic data.     

水声信道中一种抗多途跳频通信的研究

水声通道系统是当代海洋开发和海洋环境立体监测中的重要技术组成部分，广泛应用于海洋监测、海洋资源勘探和开发等方面。然而，水声信道的随机起伏、时－空－频变的多途特征使水声通信技术成为当代最为复杂的通信技术之一。本文介绍近年来在高速水声通信方面的一些研究进展，讨论了一种利用高速数字信号处理器（DSP）实现水声信道跳频通信的方案，并探讨了该方案在调制信号设计及信号处理实现上所采用的关键技术。     

Adaptive multiuser detection for underwater acoustical channels

An underwater acoustic local area network (ALAN) provides multipoint-to-point telemetry between many high-rate, ocean-bottom sensors and a central, surface-deployed receiver in the 10-30 kHz vertical acoustical channel. Ocean-bottom modems initiate the transmission process by requesting data channel time slots via a common narrow-band request channel. Request packets overlap in time and frequency in this channel, and the throughput and average transmission delay rely heavily on the successful resolution of the request packet collisions. This paper presents the design, analysis, and experimental demonstration of a request channel receiver capable of resolving collisions between several asynchronous and cochannel packets. The receiver algorithm differs from standard capture schemes (by demodulating the data from both strong and weak transmitters), conventional spread-spectrum receivers (by overcoming the near-far problem), and existing multiple-access demodulation techniques (by adapting to the number of interfering signals, and the unknown phase, Doppler, amplitude, and timing of each signal in the collision). The receiver demodulates the collided packets by decision-directed techniques through a novel method of estimating the interference for each user which minimizes error propagation due to inaccurate tentative decisions. An inwater experiment illustrates that this technique is extremely desirable for collision resolution in underwater acoustic local area networks, and also for underwater autonomous vehicles with both sidescan sonar as well as acoustic telemetry links     

Measurements of high-frequency shallow-water acoustic phasefluctuations

A shallow-water high-frequency (HF) acoustic propagation experiment was conducted just off shore in Panama City, FL. Several broad-band high-resolution sources and receivers were mounted on stable platforms and deployed in water depths of 8-10 m. Signals covering the frequency range from 20 to 200 kHz were transmitted from the sources to two spatially separated receivers. The data were analyzed to provide estimates of the signal phase variances as a function of frequency and source-to-receiver range. These phase variabilities are correlated with small-scale water column thermal variabilities and ocean swell conditions     

A fast responding temperature measurement system for CTD applications

The temperature measurement system of the standard Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Neil Brown Instrument Systems conductivity-temperature-depth microprofiler consists of a platinum thermometer, which has stable calibration characteristics but response time of order 200 ms combined with a fast response thermistor designed to sample the higher frequency temperature fluctuations. The calibration characteristics and temporal response of the individual sensors relative to the conductivity cell were studied using a modified instrument which digitized these data channels separately. The relative responses of the individual sensors were found to be fairly well modeled by a single pole filter, but the response of the standard temperature signal, which is an analog combination of the two temperature sensor outputs, exhibited a complicated behavior. Several methods for obtaining a well-calibrated fast-responding temperature signal from the digitized platinum thermometer and thermistor records are discussed. Preliminary results suggest that thermohaline features on scales of less than a meter in the vertical are resolvable.     

Multicarrier Communication Over Underwater Acoustic Channels With Nonuniform Doppler Shifts

Underwater acoustic (UWA) channels are wideband in nature due to the small ratio of the carrier frequency to the signal bandwidth, which introduces frequency-dependent Doppler shifts. In this paper, we treat the channel as having a common Doppler scaling factor on all propagation paths, and propose a two-step approach to mitigating the Doppler effect: 1) nonuniform Doppler compensation via resampling that converts a “wideband” problem into a “narrowband” problem and 2) high-resolution uniform compensation of the residual Doppler. We focus on zero-padded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to minimize the transmission power. Null subcarriers are used to facilitate Doppler compensation, and pilot subcarriers are used for channel estimation. The receiver is based on block-by-block processing, and does not rely on channel dependence across OFDM blocks; thus, it is suitable for fast-varying UWA channels. The data from two shallow-water experiments near Woods Hole, MA, are used to demonstrate the receiver performance. Excellent performance results are obtained even when the transmitter and the receiver are moving at a relative speed of up to 10 kn, at which the Doppler shifts are greater than the OFDM subcarrier spacing. These results suggest that OFDM is a viable option for high-rate communications over wideband UWA channels with nonuniform Doppler shifts.      

Short-range precision navigation and tracking system

A precision ranging system, utilizing a phase-locked loop (PLL), has been developed for use in high-accuracy short-range navigation and tracking. Initial studies and laboratory experimentation indicate that an accuracy of 0.1 m is within feasibility limits. The system utilizes a PLL to maintain a constant phase relationship between the modulation of the carrier frequency of a master station and the return signal from a fixed position repeater station. The fixed phase relation implies that as range varies, the modulation frequency varies inversely. Range measurement is determined by means of frequency measurement.     

数字式水声语音通信发射器系统的研制

利用纵振换能器的纵向振动与换能器前盖板的弯曲振动相耦合原理，采用纵振换能器与声反射器配合，研制出一种适应在复杂海洋声信道进行高速率传输，具有低频，宽带，大功率等优点的水声换能器。     

Adaptive frequency-domain beam forming and spectral analysis using small sparse arrays

An adaptive frequency-domain signal-processing technique for finding principal direction and spectral amplitude as a function of frequency without conventional beam forming is described mathematically. The technique, called Coherent Adaptive Processing Scheme (CAPS), is applicable to signals typical of many ocean science measurements. Results of successful CAPS analysis of shallow-water acoustic signals are presented. Potential real-time applications of CAPS to sensor systems are discussed. References to past applications to ocean waves are given.     

Acoustic telemetry--An overview

Acoustic telemetry from underwater submersibles and sensors has been pursued ever since it was recognized that the ocean could support signal transmission. While it has been evident that some form of communication is possible, the ocean has proved to be a distressingly difficult medium in which to achieve high data rates. High data rate transmission requires a wide bandwidth which is severely constrained in the ocean because of the absorption of high-frequency energy. Moreover, the ocean is a very reverberant environment with both time and frequency spreading of signals; this further limits data transmission rates. The net effect of the bandwidth and reverberation constraints has led to either acoustic telemetry systems with low data rates or to the use of tethered systems. Over the years, various forms of acoustic communication systems have been developed. These have included direct AM and SSB for underwater telephones, FM for sensor data, FSK and DPSK for digital data, and parametric sonars for narrow-beam systems. As offshore operations have increased, several other systems have been proposed and/or built to respond to particular needs. In this paper, we review the underwater channel and the limitations that it imposes upon acoustic telemetry systems. We then survey some of the systems that have been built (excluding military systems) and indicate how they use various communication system principles to overcome these limitations.     

Coupling parameters of the MIT OBS at two nearshore sites

A model representing the coupling of an ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) to the seafloor as a mass-spring-dashpot system satisfactorily explains the results of transient tests performed on different instruments during the Lopez Island intercomparison test. In this paper, we compare the results obtained for the MIT OBS at Lopez Island to results from similar tests at a dockside site at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vertical instrument response at the Lopez Island site shows a highly damped resonance at a frequency of 22 Hz, whereas the response at the Woods Hole site shows a marked resonance at 13 Hz. The difference between the responses at the two sites can be qualitatively attributed to the difference between the surficial sediments.     

全球海洋酸化研究态势与最新进展分析

海洋是一个巨大的碳库,通过吸收大气中的二氧化碳减缓了全球变暖的局势。海洋同时也是蕴含丰富资源的宝库,过量二氧化碳的吸收造成海水pH值发生变化,海洋酸化对这个资源宝库的影响不容忽视。文章通过文献计量与统计分析的方法,从宏观角度研究了海洋酸化研究的整体发展现状、主要研究力量与研究主题分布,分析了未来的发展趋势,并结合现有问题给出了讨论建议,以期为未来的海洋酸化研究提供一定的参考借鉴。研究结果表明：海洋酸化研究经历了探索、成型、快速增长与稳步增长4个时期,澳大利亚、美国、加拿大和英国是主要研究国家,美国国家海洋与大气管理局、美国伍兹霍尔海洋研究所、美国加州大学、澳大利亚昆士兰大学和詹姆斯库克大学是主要研究机构。海洋酸化过程与成因、敏感性生物与生命过程影响、生态系统影响与生态效应、珊瑚礁与藻类典型研究等内容则是该领域的主要研究主题。未来的海洋酸化研究还应该拓展广度和深度、提升方法和技术,并注意制定综合研究计划、慎重定性与量化研究结果、考虑多方面差异耦合因子并加强基础研究与国际合作。     

Deterministic three-dimensional analysis of long-range soundpropagation through internal-wave fields

A Munk profile and a set of propagating internal-wave modes are used to construct a three-dimensional time-varying ocean sound-speed model. Three-dimensional ray tracing is employed to simulate long-range sound propagation of a broadband acoustic signal. Methods are developed to convert three-dimensional ray-tracing results to acoustic time-domain amplitude and phase measurements. The ocean sound-speed model is defined deterministically, and the model acoustic receptions are analyzed deterministically. A single internal-wave mode that is “spatially synchronizes” to an arrival can coherently focus and defocus the acoustic energy. These internal waves can cause an arrival's amplitude fluctuation to mimic Rayleigh fading; however, the time-domain phase is stable, in contradiction to the classical Rayleigh fading environment where the received phase is uniformly distributed. For example, the received power attributed to an early arrival propagated over a 750-km range can fluctuate over 40 dB, while the time-domain phase remains within a quarter of a 75 Hz cycle. The characteristics of the time-domain phase are important for establishing coherent integration times at the receiver     

Analysis of marine DOC using a dry combustion method

As part of a continuing effort to verify and improve measurements of marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC), we combusted dried sea salts + adhered organic matter to assay DOC concentrations in representative samples from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Combustions were performed overnight at 580 °C in sealed tubes, and oxidation of organic materials occurred via a novel mechanism, thermal sulfate reduction: 2H₂SO₄ + CH₂O → 2SO₂ + 3H₂O + CO₂Measured DOC concentrations ranged from 43 to 114 μM C, with highest values observed in inshore surface samples from Woods Hole Harbor, and lowest values observed in twelve deep offshore Atlantic and Pacific waters. Stable carbon isotope values determined for all samples were near − 22%., consistent with a predominantly marine phytoplankton origin for DOC. A seasonal study in Woods Hole Harbor showed no significant temporal trend in nearshore DOC concentrations. Problems associated with sample storage and contamination during drying steps prevented highly precise (± 1 μM) DOC concentration determinations; however, an improved drying and measurement system is outlined (Appendix A) for possible future dry-combustion studies of DOC concentrations.