A two-month-long glider deployment in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, measured the ambient sound level variability with depth and lateral position across a narrow channel that serves as an active commercial shipping corridor. The Honguedo Strait between the Gaspé Peninsula and Anticosti Island has a characteristic sound channel during the Summer and Fall due to temperature variation with depth. The experiment comprised continuous acoustic measurements in the band 1–1000 Hz and oceanographic (temperature and salinity) measurements from a profiling electric glider down to 210 m water depth. The mean observed ambient sound depth-profile was modeled by placing a uniform distribution of sources near the surface to represent a homogeneous wind-generated ocean wave field and computing the acoustic field using normal modes. The measurements and predictions match within the observed error bars and indicate a minimum in the sound channel at 70 m depth and a relative increase by ∼1 dB down to 180 m depth for frequencies >100 Hz. The impact of detector depth, the distance to a busy shipping corridor, wind noise, flow noise, and self-noise are discussed in the context of passive acoustic monitoring and marine mammal detection.
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September 2023
September 15 2023
Ambient noise levels with depth from an underwater glider survey across shipping lanes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada
Romina A. S. Gehrmann
;
Romina A. S. Gehrmann
a)
1
Dalhousie University
, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada
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David R. Barclay
;
David R. Barclay
1
Dalhousie University
, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada
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Hansen Johnson
;
Hansen Johnson
1
Dalhousie University
, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada
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Najeem Shajahan;
Najeem Shajahan
2
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria
, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W2Y2, Canada
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Veronique Nolet;
Veronique Nolet
3
Transport Canada Innovation Centre
, Ottawa, K1A 0N8, Canada
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Kimberley T. A. Davies
Kimberley T. A. Davies
4
University of New Brunswick
, Saint John, New Brunswick, E2K 5E2, Canada
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a)
Email: rgehrmann@dal.ca
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 154, 1735–1745 (2023)
Article history
Received:
April 14 2023
Accepted:
August 23 2023
Citation
Romina A. S. Gehrmann, David R. Barclay, Hansen Johnson, Najeem Shajahan, Veronique Nolet, Kimberley T. A. Davies; Ambient noise levels with depth from an underwater glider survey across shipping lanes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 September 2023; 154 (3): 1735–1745. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0020908
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