S.M. Jesus sjesus@ualg.pt
LARSys, University of Algarve,
Campus de Gambelas, PT-8005-139 Faro, Portugal.
C. Soares csoares@marsensing.com
F. Zabel fredz@marsensing.com
Marsensing, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro (Portugal)
Comments: download pdf file (not available).
Ref.: MTS/IEEE Oceans, Aberdeen, June 2017.
Abstract
There is significant evidence that the low-frequency mean acoustic noise pressure level in the ocean has been
constantly increasing in the last decades. The main noise sources responsible for this increase were identified
as ship traffic, offshore construction and oil & gas surveying. The Portuguese Navy funded SUBECO project aims
at deploying a network of multiparametric offshore buoys for environmental and acoustic monitoring. A preferred
location for the individual buoys is within or close by the ship traffic separation lanes along the west coast
of Portugal. It is therefore expected that the received acoustic field will be dominated by shipping noise as
a mixture of both short and long range ships. Most ships will have an AIS so their position may be known at all
times. One of the objectives of this network is to use the recorded sound to infer and calibrate model predicted
noise in a wider area. This work proposes a relatively simple technique for estimating the radiated noise level
of ship tracks within acoustic reach of a single (or a small number of closely localized) hydrophone(s). It is
expected that the data constrained predicted field with the estimated source levels will provide a better fit to
the actual wide area acoustic field. This work is a contribution to fulfill the requirements of Portugal to the
European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aiming at a good environmental status.
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