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- Monitoring bubble production in a seagrass meadow using a source of opportunityPublication . Felisberto, Paulo; Rodríguez, Orlando; Silva, João P.; Jesus, Sergio; Ferreira, Hugo Q.; Ferreira, Pedro P.; Cunha, Maria E.; de los Santos, Carmen B.; Olivé, Irene; Santos, RuiUnder high irradiance, the photosynthetic activity of dense seagrass meadows saturates the water forming oxygen bubbles. The diel cycle of bubble production peaks at mid-day, following light intensity pattern. It is well known that bubbles strongly affect the acoustic propagation, increasing signal attenuation and decreasing the effective water sound speed, noticeable at low frequencies. Thus, the diurnal variability of bubbles may show an interference pattern in the spectrograms of low frequency acoustic signals. In an experiment conducted in July 2016 at the Aquaculture Research Station of the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere in Olhão, Portugal, the spectrograms of low frequency (<20kHz) broadband noise produced by water pumps in a pond of 0.48ha covered by the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa showed interference patterns that can be ascribed to the variability of the sound speed in the water. Preliminary analysis suggests that the daily cycle of bubble concentration can be inferred from these interference patterns.
- Iterative range estimation in a sloping-bottom shallow-water waveguide using the generalized array invariantPublication . Cho, Chomgun; Song, H. C.; Hursky, P.; Jesus, SergioThe array invariant theory was generalized by incorporating the waveguide invariant beta, referred to as the generalized array invariant. In this paper, the generalized array invariant is extended to mildly range-dependent environments with a sloping bottom where the waveguide invariant is variable in range. Assuming knowledge of the bottom slope, the array invariant can be applied iteratively to estimate the source range starting with beta=1 (i.e., range-independent), which converges toward the correct source range by updating b at the previously estimated range. The iterative array invariant approach is demonstrated using a short-aperture vertical array (2.8-m) in a sloping-bottom shallow-water waveguide from the Random Array of Drifting Acoustic Receivers 2007 experiment, where a high-frequency source (2-3.5 kHz) close to the surface (6-m) was towed between 0.5 and 5 km in range with the water depth varying from 80 to 50 m. (C) 2017 Acoustical Society of America.
- Field calibration a tool for acoustic noise prediction. The CALCOM 10 data setPublication . Felisberto, P.; Jesus, S. M.; Martins, N.It is widely recognized that anthropogenic noise affects the marine fauna, thus it becomes a major concern in ocean management policies. In the other hand there is an increasing demand for wave energy installations that, presumably, are an important source of noise. A noise prediction tool is of crucial importance to assess the impact of a perspective installation. Contribute for the development of such a tool is one of the objectives of the WEAM project. In this context, the CALCOM’10 sea trial took place off the south coast of Portugal, from 22 to 24 June, 2010 with the purpose of field calibration. Field calibration is a concept used to tune the parameters of an acoustic propagation model for a region of interest. The basic idea is that one can significantly reduce the uncertainty of the predictions of acoustic propagation in a region, even with scarce environmental data (bathymetric, geoacoustic), given that relevant acoustic parameters obtained by acoustic inference (i.e. acoustic inversion) are integrated in the prediction scheme. For example, this concept can be applied to the classical problem of transmission loss predictions or, as in our case, the problem of predicting the distribution of acoustic noise due to a wave energy power plant. In such applications the accuracy of bathymetric and geoacoustic parameters estimated by acoustic means is not a concern, but only the uncertainty of the predicted acoustic field. The objective of this approach is to reduce the need for extensive hydrologic and geoacoustic surveys, and reduce the influence of modelling errors, for example due to the bathymetric discretization used. Next, it is presented the experimental setup and data acquired during the sea trial as well as preliminary results of channel characterization and acoustic forward modelling.
- The TV-APM interface: a web service for collaborative modelingPublication . Rodríguez, O. C.; Silva, A.; Zabel, F.; Jesus, S. M.Current development of Internet access, together with available zero-cost Open Source applications (like, for instance, PHP, Python, etc.) can be integrated in order to minimize the constrains induced by the geographical separation of international centers, which collaborate in a given project. The advantage of such approach lies in the sharing of common analysis methods, without particular constrains to specific directions of analysis. The discussion presented in this paper describes the Time Variable Acoustic Propagation Model (TV-APM) web interface, which was created as a collaborative service of acoustic modeling for the participants of the PHITOM and UAN projects. This paper describes the general architecture of the interface, its current shortcomings and advantages, and presents a set of modeling results for short range acoustic propagation, which accounts for source–array and sea surface motion.
- Experimental results of geometric and geoacosutic parameter estimation using a vector sensor arrayPublication . Santos, P.; Felisberto, P.; Jesus, S. M.; João, J.The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the work developed at SiPLAB, University of Algarve, with vector sensor data collected during Makai experiment 2005, in geometric and geoacoustic parameter estimation. During this experiment devoted to high frequency initiative, acoustic data were acquired by a four element vertical vector sensor array (VSA). A vector sensor is a directional sensor constituted by one omni directional pressure sensor and three velocity-meters, where both the acoustic pressure and the three particle velocity components are measured. The spatial filtering capabilities of the vector sensors are used to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA) of low and high frequency acoustic sources considering a single and a multiple sensor VSA. An inversion method based on Bartlett estimator is used for three dimensional localization of ship’s noise where the noise source is estimated in range and depth taking into accounts the azimuth given by DOA. Moreover, this method is applied to seabed parameters estimation like sediment compressional speed, density and compressional attenuation, contributing to improve the resolution of these parameters.
- Using active and passive acoustics to assess O2 production of a Posidonia oceanica meadowPublication . Felisberto, P.; Zabel, F.; Rodríguez, O. C.; Santos, P.; Jesus, S. M.; Champenois, W.; Borges, A. V.; Santos, RuiThis work discusses the data acquired during two experiments conducted in October 2011 and May 2013 in the Bay of la Revellata, Calvi, Corsica for the purpose of developing an acoustic system for monitoring the oxygen production of a seagrass meadow.
- The TV-APM interface: a web service for collaborative modellingPublication . Rodríguez, Orlando; Silva, António J.; Zabel, Friedrich; Jesus, S. M.Current development of Internet access, together with available zero-cost Open Source applications (like, for instance, PHP, Python, etc.) can be integrated in order to minimize the constrains induced by the geographical separation of international centers, which collaborate in a given project. The advantage of such approach lies in the sharing of common analysis methods, without particular constrains to specific directions of analysis. The discussion presented in this paper describes the Time Variable Acoustic Propagation Model (TV-APM) web interface, which was created as a collaborative service of acoustic modeling for the participants of the PHITOM and UAN projects. This paper describes the general architecture of the interface, its current shortcomings and advantages, and presents a set of modeling results for short range acoustic propagation, which accounts for source–array and sea surface motion.
- Correlation between the acoustic noise field measured in a Posidonia oceanica bed and the photosynthetic activityPublication . Felisberto, P.; Zabel, F.; Rodríguez, O. C.; Santos, P.; Jesus, S. M.; Champenois, W.; Borges, A. V.; Santos, RuiDuring the period of one week, from May 8 to 15, 2013, acoustic data was gathered at three locations over a Posidonia oceanica bed in the Bay of Revellata, Corsica. Preliminary analysis of the acoustic data shows that the environmental noise field in the band 2-7kHz was dominant during the period. The noise in this band is generally associated with wind and surface agitation. However, the noise power was not significantly correlated with wind speed. On the contrary, the diel cycle of the noise power at three locations was highly correlated with the water column concentration of O2, as measured by optodes. These measurements of environmental noise have confirmed the correlation between active acoustic signals transmitted along a seagrass meadow and the photosynthetic activity of the plants observed in a previous experiment conducted in the same area .The results suggest that acoustic noise can be used as a proxy for the photosynthetic oxygen production of a Posidonia oceanica meadow. Therefore, this work is a contribution for the development of a low cost passive acoustic system to assess the primary production of coastal ecosystems .
- Linking acoustic communications and network performance. Integration and experimentation of an underwater acoustic networkPublication . Caiti, A.; Grythe, K.; Hovem, J. M.; Jesus, S. M.; Lie, A.; Munafò, Andrea; Reinen, Tor Arne; Silva, A.; Zabel, F.Underwater acoustic networks (UANs) are an emerging technology for a number of oceanic applications, ranging from oceanographic data collection to surveillance applications. However, their reliable usage in the field is still an open research problem, due to the challenges posed by the oceanic environment. The UAN project, a European-Union-funded initiative, moved along these lines, and it was one of the first cases of successful deployment of a mobile underwater sensor network integrated within a wide-area network, which included above water and underwater sensors. This contribution, together with a description of the underwater network, aims at evaluating the communication performance, and correlating the variation of the acoustic channel to the behavior of the entire network stack. Results are given based on the data collected during the UAN11 (May 2011, Trondheim Fjord area, Norway) sea trial. During the experimental activities, the network was in operation for five continuous days and was composed of up to four Fixed NOdes (FNOs), two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and one mobile node mounted on the supporting research vessel. Results from the experimentation at sea are reported in terms of channel impulse response (CIR) and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) as measured by the acoustic modems during the sea tests. The performance of the upper network levels is measured in terms of round trip time (RTT) and probability of packet loss (PL). The analysis shows how the communication performance was dominated by variations in signal-to-noise ratio, and how this impacted the behavior of the whole network. Qualitative explanation of communication performance variations can be accounted, at least in the UAN11 experiment, by standard computation of the CIR and transmission loss estimate.
- Underwater acoustic communications. From point-to-point to networksPublication . Jesus, S. M.This is a review presentation that addresses recent developments in underwater acoustic telemetry as a tool for ocean observation, monitoring and protection. Distributed sensing is a paradigm with important reflections in oceanic technology where bottom installed structures can not always be connected to a central hub through cabled networks. Moreover, recent developments in ocean robotics lead to the off-the-shelf availability of autonomous underwater vehicles that rely on wireless communications for sending information and receiving commands. Unlike its aerial counterpart wireless underwater communications, are strongly affected and limited by the propagation media: the low speed of propagation, highly limited bandwidth, spatial and time variability of environmental properties and randomness, all together contribute to the slow adoption of standardized and reliable underwater communications networks. This paper addresses the main issues regarding and characterizing the underwater acoustic communication channel as well as the proposed techniques to overcome those issues for, in a first stage, point-to-point (P2P) communications and then for the set up of full underwater networks comprising both fixed and mobile nodes. The presentation is illustrated by real data based examples drawn from experiments carried out at sea by the Signal Processing Laboratory, University of Algarve, Portugal (SiPLAB, www.siplab.fct.ualg.pt) in numerous national and European research projects in the last 15 years.