Determining the range to marine mammals in the Northern gulf of mexico via bayesian acoustic signal processing

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2020-10, Vol.148 (4), p.2589-2589
• Main Authors: Leftwich, Kendal, Drouant, George, Ioup, Juliette W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.5147191

Being able to determine the range or distance to an object from its acoustic signal is a key component in tracking the object. We will apply concepts from the Bayesian processor (Kalman filter) as well as known environmental aspects to LADC-GEMM underwater passive acoustic data: sperm whales, beaked whales and dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The Bayesian processor has had applications in chemical processing, navigation, ocean acoustics, seismology, and tracking, among others. We will use a modified version of the Kalman filter with data from a single hydrophone to determine the most-probable range of the marine mammal from the hydrophone. We will use such aspects as the geometry of the region, the depth of the hydrophone, the range of possible detection, the structure of the click and other factors to restrict the possible locations of the marine mammal source. From this, we can determine a three-dimensional shell of most probable locations for the marine mammal.