Vast assembly of vocal marine mammals from diverse species on fish spawning ground.

Observing marine mammal (MM) populations continuously in time and space over the immense ocean areas they inhabit is challenging but essential for gathering an unambiguous record of their distribution, as well as understanding their behaviour and interaction with prey species. Here we use passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS) in an important North Atlantic feeding ground to instantaneously detect, localize and classify MM vocalizations from diverse species over an approximately 100,000 km(2) region. More than eight species of vocal MMs are found to spatially converge on fish spawning areas containing massive densely populated herring shoals at night-time and diffuse herring distributions during daytime. We find the vocal MMs divide the enormous fish prey field into species-specific foraging areas with varying degrees of spatial overlap, maintained for at least two weeks of the herring spawning period. The recorded vocalization rates are diel (24 h)-dependent for all MM species, with some significantly more vocal at night and others more vocal during the day. The four key baleen whale species of the region: fin, humpback, blue and minke have vocalization rate trends that are highly correlated to trends in fish shoaling density and to each other over the diel cycle. These results reveal the temporospatial dynamics of combined multi-species MM foraging activities in the vicinity of an extensive fish prey field that forms a massive ecological hotspot, and would be unattainable with conventional methodologies. Understanding MM behaviour and distributions is essential for management of marine ecosystems and for accessing anthropogenic impacts on these protected marine species.

Simultaneous localization of multiple broadband non-impulsive acoustic sources in an ocean waveguide using the array invariant.

The array invariant method, previously derived for instantaneous range and bearing estimation of a single broadband impulsive source in a horizontally stratified ocean waveguide, can be generalized to simultaneously localize multiple uncorrelated broadband noise sources that are not necessarily impulsive in the time domain by introducing temporal pulse compression and an image processing technique similar to the Radon transform. This can be done by estimating the range and bearing of broadband non-impulsive sources from measured beam-time migration lines of modal arrivals along a horizontal array arising from differences in modal group velocity and modal polar angle for each propagating mode. The generalized array invariant approach is used to estimate the range of a vertical source array and vocalizing humpback whales over wide areas from measurements made by a towed horizontal receiver array during the Gulf of Maine 2006 Experiment. The localization results are shown to have roughly 12% root-mean-squared errors from Global Positioning System measured ground truth positions for controlled source transmissions and less than 10% discrepancy from those obtained independently via moving array triangulation for vocalizing humpbacks, respectively.

Ecosystem scale acoustic sensing reveals humpback whale behavior synchronous with herring spawning processes and re-evaluation finds no effect of sonar on humpback song occurrence in the Gulf of Maine in fall 2006.

We show that humpback-whale vocalization behavior is synchronous with peak annual Atlantic herring spawning processes in the Gulf of Maine. With a passive, wide-aperture, densely-sampled, coherent hydrophone array towed north of Georges Bank in a Fall 2006 Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS) experiment, vocalizing whales could be instantaneously detected and localized over most of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem in a roughly 400-km diameter area by introducing array gain, of 18 dB, orders of magnitude higher than previously available in acoustic whale sensing. With humpback-whale vocalizations consistently recorded at roughly 2000/day, we show that vocalizing humpbacks (i) were overwhelmingly distributed along the northern flank of Georges Bank, coinciding with the peak spawning time and location of Atlantic herring, and (ii) their overall vocalization behavior was strongly diurnal, synchronous with the formation of large nocturnal herring shoals, with a call rate roughly ten-times higher at night than during the day. Humpback-whale vocalizations were comprised of (1) highly diurnal non-song calls, suited to hunting and feeding behavior, and (2) songs, which had constant occurrence rate over a diurnal cycle, invariant to diurnal herring shoaling. Before and during OAWRS survey transmissions: (a) no vocalizing whales were found at Stellwagen Bank, which had negligible herring populations, and (b) a constant humpback-whale song occurrence rate indicates the transmissions had no effect on humpback song. These measurements contradict the conclusions of Risch et al. Our analysis indicates that (a) the song occurrence variation reported in Risch et al. is consistent with natural causes other than sonar, (b) the reducing change in song reported in Risch et al. occurred days before the sonar survey began, and (c) the Risch et al. method lacks the statistical significance to draw the conclusions of Risch et al. because it has a 98-100% false-positive rate and lacks any true-positive confirmation.

Using a coherent hydrophone array for observing sperm whale range, classification, and shallow-water dive profiles.

Sperm whales in the New England continental shelf and slope were passively localized, in both range and bearing, and classified using a single low-frequency (<2500 Hz), densely sampled, towed horizontal coherent hydrophone array system. Whale bearings were estimated using time-domain beamforming that provided high coherent array gain in sperm whale click signal-to-noise ratio. Whale ranges from the receiver array center were estimated using the moving array triangulation technique from a sequence of whale bearing measurements. Multiple concurrently vocalizing sperm whales, in the far-field of the horizontal receiver array, were distinguished and classified based on their horizontal spatial locations and the inter-pulse intervals of their vocalized click signals. The dive profile was estimated for a sperm whale in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Maine with 160 m water-column depth located close to the array's near-field where depth estimation was feasible by employing time difference of arrival of the direct and multiply reflected click signals received on the horizontal array. By accounting for transmission loss modeled using an ocean waveguide-acoustic propagation model, the sperm whale detection range was found to exceed 60 km in low to moderate sea state conditions after coherent array processing.

Temporal coherence of the acoustic field forward propagated through a continental shelf with random internal waves.

An analytical model derived from normal mode theory for the accumulated effects of range-dependent multiple forward scattering is applied to estimate the temporal coherence of the acoustic field forward propagated through a continental-shelf waveguide containing random three-dimensional internal waves. The modeled coherence time scale of narrow band low-frequency acoustic field fluctuations after propagating through a continental-shelf waveguide is shown to decay with a power-law of range to the -1/2 beyond roughly 1 km, decrease with increasing internal wave energy, to be consistent with measured acoustic coherence time scales. The model should provide a useful prediction of the acoustic coherence time scale as a function of internal wave energy in continental-shelf environments. The acoustic coherence time scale is an important parameter in remote sensing applications because it determines (i) the time window within which standard coherent processing such as matched filtering may be conducted, and (ii) the number of statistically independent fluctuations in a given measurement period that determines the variance reduction possible by stationary averaging.

Comparing passive source localization and tracking approaches with a towed horizontal receiver array in an ocean waveguide.

Approaches for instantaneous passive source localization using a towed horizontal receiver array in a random range-dependent ocean waveguide are examined. They include: (1) Moving array triangulation, (2) array invariant, (3) bearings-only target motion analysis in modified polar coordinates via the extended Kalman filter, and (4) bearings-migration minimum mean-square error. These methods are applied to localize and track a vertical source array deployed in the far-field of a towed horizontal receiver array during the Gulf of Maine 2006 Experiment. The source transmitted intermittent broadband pulses in the 300 to 1200 Hz frequency range. A nonlinear matched-filter kernel designed to replicate the acoustic signal measured by the receiver array is applied to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. The source localization accuracy is found to be highly dependent on source-receiver geometry and the localization approach. For a relatively stationary source drifting at speeds much slower than the receiver array tow-speed, the mean source position can be estimated by moving array triangulation with less than 3% error near broadside direction. For a moving source, the Kalman filter method gives the best performance with 5.5% error. The array invariant is the best approach for localizing sources within the endfire beam of the receiver array with 7% error.

Probability distribution for energy of saturated broadband ocean acoustic transmission: results from Gulf of Maine 2006 experiment.

The probability distribution of ocean-acoustic broadband signal energy after saturated multipath propagation is derived using coherence theory. The frequency components obtained from Fourier decomposition of a broadband signal are each assumed to be fully saturated with energy spectral density that obey the exponential distribution with 5.6 dB standard deviation and unity scintillation index. When the signal bandwidth and measurement time are larger than the correlation bandwidth and correlation time, respectively, of its energy spectral density components, the broadband signal energy obtained by integrating the energy spectral density across the signal bandwidth then follows the Gamma distribution with a standard deviation smaller than 5.6 dB and a scintillation index less than unity. The theory is verified with broadband transmissions in the Gulf of Maine shallow water waveguide in the 300 to 1200 Hz frequency range. The standard deviations of received broadband signal energies range from 2.7 to 4.6 dB for effective bandwidths up to 42 Hz, while the standard deviations of individual energy spectral density components are roughly 5.6 dB. The energy spectral density correlation bandwidths of the received broadband signals are found to be larger for signals with higher center frequencies and are roughly 10% of each center frequency.

Scattering from extended targets in range-dependent fluctuating ocean-waveguides with clutter from theory and experiments.

Bistatic, long-range measurements of acoustic scattered returns from vertically extended, air-filled tubular targets were made during three distinct field experiments in fluctuating continental shelf waveguides. It is shown that Sonar Equation estimates of mean target-scattered intensity lead to large errors, differing by an order of magnitude from both the measurements and waveguide scattering theory. The use of the Ingenito scattering model is also shown to lead to significant errors in estimating mean target-scattered intensity in the field experiments because they were conducted in range-dependent ocean environments with large variations in sound speed structure over the depth of the targets, scenarios that violate basic assumptions of the Ingenito model. Green's theorem based full-field modeling that describes scattering from vertically extended tubular targets in range-dependent ocean waveguides by taking into account nonuniform sound speed structure over the target's depth extent is shown to accurately describe the statistics of the targets' scattered field in all three field experiments. Returns from the man-made targets are also shown to have a very different spectral dependence from the natural target-like clutter of the dominant fish schools observed, suggesting that judicious multi-frequency sensing may often provide a useful means of distinguishing fish from man-made targets.

Effects of multiple scattering, attenuation and dispersion in waveguide sensing of fish.

An ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing system can instantaneously image and continuously monitor fish populations distributed over continental shelf-scale regions. Here it is shown theoretically that the areal population density of fish groups can be estimated from their incoherently averaged broadband matched filtered scattered intensities measured using a waveguide remote sensing system with less than 10% error. A numerical Monte-Carlo model is developed to determine the statistical moments of the scattered returns from a fish group. It uses the parabolic equation to simulate acoustic field propagation in a random range-dependent ocean waveguide. The effects of (1) multiple scattering, (2) attenuation due to scattering, and (3) modal dispersion on fish population density imaging are examined. The model is applied to investigate population density imaging of shoaling Atlantic herring during the 2006 Gulf of Maine Experiment. Multiple scattering, attenuation and dispersion are found to be negligible at the imaging frequencies employed and for the herring densities observed. Coherent multiple scattering effects, such as resonance shifts, which can be significant for small highly dense fish groups on the order of the acoustic wavelength, are found to be negligible for the much larger groups typically imaged with a waveguide remote sensing system.

Force estimation and prediction from time-varying density images.

We present methods for estimating forces which drive motion observed in density image sequences. Using these forces, we also present methods for predicting velocity and density evolution. To do this, we formulate and apply a Minimum Energy Flow (MEF) method which is capable of estimating both incompressible and compressible flows from time-varying density images. Both the MEF and force-estimation techniques are applied to experimentally obtained density images, spanning spatial scales from micrometers to several kilometers. Using density image sequences describing cell splitting, for example, we show that cell division is driven by gradients in apparent pressure within a cell. Using density image sequences of fish shoals, we also quantify 1) intershoal dynamics such as coalescence of fish groups over tens of kilometers, 2) fish mass flow between different parts of a large shoal, and 3) the stresses acting on large fish shoals.

General second-order covariance of Gaussian maximum likelihood estimates applied to passive source localization in fluctuating waveguides.

A method is provided for determining necessary conditions on sample size or signal to noise ratio (SNR) to obtain accurate parameter estimates from remote sensing measurements in fluctuating environments. These conditions are derived by expanding the bias and covariance of maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) in inverse orders of sample size or SNR, where the first-order covariance term is the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). Necessary sample sizes or SNRs are determined by requiring that (i) the first-order bias and the second-order covariance are much smaller than the true parameter value and the CRLB, respectively, and (ii) the CRLB falls within desired error thresholds. An analytical expression is provided for the second-order covariance of MLEs obtained from general complex Gaussian data vectors, which can be used in many practical problems since (i) data distributions can often be assumed to be Gaussian by virtue of the central limit theorem, and (ii) it allows for both the mean and variance of the measurement to be functions of the estimation parameters. Here, conditions are derived to obtain accurate source localization estimates in a fluctuating ocean waveguide containing random internal waves, and the consequences of the loss of coherence on their accuracy are quantified.

Low-frequency target strength and abundance of shoaling Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in the Gulf of Maine during the Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing 2006 Experiment.

The low-frequency target strength of shoaling Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in the Gulf of Maine during Autumn 2006 spawning season is estimated from experimental data acquired simultaneously at multiple frequencies in the 300-1200 Hz range using (1) a low-frequency ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (OAWRS) system, (2) areal population density calibration with several conventional fish finding sonar (CFFS) systems, and (3) low-frequency transmission loss measurements. The OAWRS system's instantaneous imaging diameter of 100 km and regular updating enabled unaliased monitoring of fish populations over ecosystem scales including shoals of Atlantic herring containing hundreds of millions of individuals, as confirmed by concurrent trawl and CFFS sampling. High spatial-temporal coregistration was found between herring shoals imaged by OAWRS and concurrent CFFS line-transects, which also provided fish depth distributions. The mean scattering cross-section of an individual shoaling herring is found to consistently exhibit a strong, roughly 20 dB/octave roll-off with decreasing frequency in the range of the OAWRS survey over all days of the roughly 2-week experiment, consistent with the steep roll-offs expected for sub-resonance scattering from fish with air-filled swimbladders.

High resolution population density imaging of random scatterers with the matched filtered scattered field variance.

The matched filter enables imaging with high spatial resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio by coherent correlation with the expected field from what is assumed to be a discrete scatterer. In many physical imaging systems, however, returns from a large number of randomized scatterers, ranging from thousands to millions of individuals, are received together and the coherent or expected field vanishes. Despite this, it is shown that cross-spectral coherence in the matched filtered variance retains a pulse compression property that enables high-resolution imaging of scatterer population density. Analytic expressions for the statistical moments of the broadband matched filtered scattered field are derived in terms of the medium's Green's function, object scatter function, and spatial distribution using a single-scatter approximation. The formulation can account for potential dispersion in the medium and target over the signal bandwidth, and can be used to compare the relative levels of the coherent and incoherent scattered intensities. The analytic model is applied to investigate population density imaging of fish distributions in the Gulf of Maine with an ultrasonic echosounder. The results are verified with numerical Monte-Carlo simulations that include multiple scattering, illustrating that the single-scatter approximation is valid even for relatively dense Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) schools.

Effects of incident field refraction on scattered field from vertically extended cylindrical targets in range-dependent ocean waveguides.

The effect of incident field refraction on the scattered field from vertically extended cylindrical targets is investigated. A theoretical model for the total scattered field from a cylindrical target in a range-dependent ocean waveguide is developed from Green's theorem. The locally scattered field on the target surface is estimated as a function of the incident field by applying the appropriate boundary conditions on continuity of acoustic pressure and normal velocity, making the model applicable to general penetrable cylinders. The model can account for depth dependence in medium sound speed and hence refraction in the incident field along the target depth. Numerical implementation is done for a passive acoustic reflector, a long cylindrical air-filled rubber hose, often deployed vertically in experiments to provide calibration and charting consistency for wide-area active sonar systems. Analysis with the model indicates that refraction in the incident field along the target depth must be taken into account to accurately estimate the scattered field level from vertically extended cylindrical targets. It is demonstrated that the standard Ingenito waveguide target scattering model, which assumes that the incident field is planar along the target extent, can lead to significant errors of 10 dB or more in estimating the scattered field level.

Critical population density triggers rapid formation of vast oceanic fish shoals.

Similarities in the behavior of diverse animal species that form large groups have motivated attempts to establish general principles governing animal group behavior. It has been difficult, however, to make quantitative measurements of the temporal and spatial behavior of extensive animal groups in the wild, such as bird flocks, fish shoals, and locust swarms. By quantifying the formation processes of vast oceanic fish shoals during spawning, we show that (i) a rapid transition from disordered to highly synchronized behavior occurs as population density reaches a critical value; (ii) organized group migration occurs after this transition; and (iii) small sets of leaders significantly influence the actions of much larger groups. Each of these findings confirms general theoretical predictions believed to apply in nature irrespective of animal species.

Empirical dependence of acoustic transmission scintillation statistics on bandwidth, frequency, and range in New Jersey continental shelf.

The scintillation statistics of broadband acoustic transmissions are determined as a function of signal bandwidth B, center frequency f(c), and range with experimental data in the New Jersey continental shelf. The received signal intensity is shown to follow the Gamma distribution implying that the central limit theorem has led to a fully saturated field from independent multimodal propagation contributions. The Gamma distribution depends on the mean intensity and the number of independent statistical fluctuations or coherent cells micro of the received signal. The latter is calculated for the matched filter, the Parseval sum, and the bandpassed center frequency, all of which are standard ocean acoustic receivers. The number of fluctuations mu of the received signal is found to be an order of magnitude smaller than the time-bandwidth product TB of the transmitted signal, and to increase monotonically with relative bandwidth Bfc. A computationally efficient numerical approach is developed to predict the mean intensity and the corresponding broadband transmission loss of a fluctuating, range-dependent ocean waveguide by range and depth averaging the output of a time-harmonic stochastic propagation model. This model enables efficient and accurate estimation of transmission loss over wide areas, which has become essential in wide-area sonar imaging applications.

Temporal coherence after multiple forward scattering through random three-dimensional inhomogeneities in an ocean waveguide.

An analytical expression is derived for the temporal coherence of an acoustic field after multiple forward scattering through random three-dimensional (3D) inhomogeneities in an ocean waveguide. This expression makes it possible to predict the coherence time scale of field fluctuations in ocean-acoustic measurements from knowledge of the oceanography. It is used to explain the time scale of acoustic field fluctuations observed at megameter ranges in various deep ocean-acoustic transmission experiments. It is shown that this time scale is nonlinearly related to the much longer coherence time scale of deep ocean internal waves through a multiple forward scattering process. It is also shown that 3D scattering effects become pronounced when the acoustic Fresnel width exceeds the cross-range coherence length of the deep ocean internal waves, which lead to frequency and range-dependent power losses in the forward field that may help to explain historic long range measurements.

Range-dependent waveguide scattering model calibrated for bottom reverberation in a continental shelf environment.

An analytic model is developed for scattering from random inhomogeneities in range-dependent ocean waveguides using the Rayleigh-Born approximation to Green's theorem. The expected scattered intensity depends on statistical moments of fractional changes in compressibility and density, which scatter as monopoles and dipoles, respectively, and the coherence volume of the inhomogeneities. The model is calibrated for ocean bottom scattering using data acquired by instantaneous wide-area ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (OAWRS) and geophysical surveys of the ONR Geoclutter Program. The scattering strength of the seafloor on the New Jersey shelf, a typical continental shelf environment, is found to depend on wave number k, medium coherence volume V(c), and seabed depth penetration factor F(p) following a 10 log(10)(F(p)V(c)k(4)) dependence. A computationally efficient numerical approach is developed to rapidly compute bottom reverberation over wide areas using the parabolic equation by exploiting correlation between monopole and dipole scattering terms and introducing seafloor depth penetration factors. An approach is also developed for distinguishing moving clutter from statistically stationary background reverberation by tracking temporal and spatial fluctuations in OAWRS intensity images.

Model for continuously scanning ultrasound vibrometer sensing displacements of randomly rough vibrating surfaces.

An analytic model is developed for the time-dependent ultrasound field reflected off a randomly rough vibrating surface for a continuously scanning ultrasound vibrometer system in bistatic configuration. Kirchhoff's approximation to Green's theorem is applied to model the three-dimensional scattering interaction of the ultrasound wave field with the vibrating rough surface. The model incorporates the beam patterns of both the transmitting and receiving ultrasound transducers and the statistical properties of the rough surface. Two methods are applied to the ultrasound system for estimating displacement and velocity amplitudes of an oscillating surface: incoherent Doppler shift spectra and coherent interferometry. Motion of the vibrometer over the randomly rough surface leads to time-dependent scattering noise that causes a randomization of the received signal spectrum. Simulations with the model indicate that surface displacement and velocity estimation are highly dependent upon the scan velocity and projected wavelength of the ultrasound vibrometer relative to the roughness height standard deviation and correlation length scales of the rough surface. The model is applied to determine limiting scan speeds for ultrasound vibrometer measuring ground displacements arising from acoustic or seismic excitation to be used in acoustic landmine confirmation sensing.

Fish population and behavior revealed by instantaneous continental shelf-scale imaging.

Until now, continental shelf environments have been monitored with highly localized line-transect methods from slow-moving research vessels. These methods significantly undersample fish populations in time and space, leaving an incomplete and ambiguous record of abundance and behavior. We show that fish populations in continental shelf environments can be instantaneously imaged over thousands of square kilometers and continuously monitored by a remote sensing technique in which the ocean acts as an acoustic waveguide. The technique has revealed the instantaneous horizontal structural characteristics and volatile short-term behavior of very large fish shoals, containing tens of millions of fish and stretching for many kilometers.