Towards more accurate sound field verification using directional acoustic filtering

Area of Science:

• Ocean acoustics
• Marine bioacoustics
• Renewable energy monitoring

Background:

• Distinguishing individual sound sources in complex marine environments is challenging.
• Omnidirectional sound measurements can obscure the contributions of specific sources.
• Marine activities, including energy production and decommissioning, generate significant underwater noise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present a method for directionally filtering acoustic measurements.
• To differentiate and quantify sound energy from specific marine sources.
• To analyze the impact of directional filtering on acoustic spectra and energy estimates.

Main Methods:

• Utilized vector measurements of acoustic pressure and particle velocity.
• Applied a directional filtering technique (masking) to acoustic data.
• Estimated sound energy from an oil platform decommissioning and a tidal energy converter.

Main Results:

• The directional filtering method successfully discriminated between sound sources.
• Filtered acoustic spectra showed distinct differences compared to unmasked data.
• Quantifiable differences in sound energy were observed between masked and unmasked scenarios.

Conclusions:

• Directional filtering is an effective method for attributing sound to specific marine sources.
• This technique improves the accuracy of sound energy estimation in noisy ocean environments.
• The method aids in monitoring the acoustic impact of marine energy technologies.