SiPLABoratory

The INTIFANTE'00 sea trial, 9-29 October 2000

The INTIFANTE'00 sea trial (INTIFANTE is a madeup acronym from INTImate and inFANTE) was carried out in the vicinity of Setúbal, situated approximately 50 km to the south of Lisbon, in Portugal, during the period from 9 to 29 October, 2000. This sea trial served a number of specific purposes under the leading projects INTIMATE and INFANTE, but one day was reserved to acquire acoustic data to test the passive tomography concept under the TOMPACO project. The experiment area was a rectangular box situated in the border of the continental platform with depths varying from 60 to 140 m and including a sharp submarine canyon (the Setúbal canyon) with depths reaching over 500 m. As an overview of the technical aspects involved in the experiment, it can be referred that acoustic signals were transmitted with an acoustic projector from on board NRP D. Carlos I and received on a moored 16 hydrophone-4m spacing Vertical Line Array (VLA). The acoustic aperture of the vertical array was located between 30 and 90 m in a 120 m water column. The acoustic signals received in the VLA were transmitted via an RF link to the research ship NRP D. Carlos I, processed, monitored and stored. Various signals were emitted by the sound projector ranging from linear frequency modulated (LFM) 2 second long up sweeps, to broadband computer generated white noise. Recordings were also made with the NRP D. Carlos I acting as source signal for the passive tomography testing purpose.
Sea trial: the first sea trial under this project took place during the 9-29 October 2000, in Tróia-Setúbal, Portugal. The sea trial was organized by Instituto Hidrografico, Lisboa, Portugal and CINTAL-Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal and involved the oceanographic research ship NRP D.Carlos I, from the Portuguese Navy. Several instrumentation was used during the various events of the sea trial, in particular for TOMPACO a 16-hydrophone VLA was used together with an HGX-90 acoustic sound source (see Intifante00 for more details regarding the sea trial).

The INTIFANTE'00 Workshop, 10-11 May 2001

Intifante'00 Workshop: a first workshop to discute preliminary results of the Intifante'00 sea trial took place at CINTAL - University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal from 10-11 May 2001 (program).