Development of the Method for Deployment of an Autonomous Source for Year-Round Acoustic Monitoring of the Arctic Ocean, the Acoustic Complex for Horizontal Location of an Autonomous Source, and Communication of the Navigation Data

摘要

In acoustic thermometry of the ocean, interpretation of the results of the measurements implies that all distances between sources and receivers in the thermometry system are fixed during an experiment. This means that the acoustic sources and receivers should be firmly installed on the bottom. However, it is not always possible to deploy such stable systems in the ocean, especially in deep water. One of the acoustic emitting complexes for the ACOUS (Arctic Climate Observation using Underwater Sound) experiment is planned for deployment in the deep-water Central Arctic Basin. Arctic conditions make it difficult to deploy a long-baseline system, since the ice drift cannot be controlled and the navigation beacons cannot be accurately deployed at the determined points on the bottom around the main mooring system. In these conditions, the beacons should be self-locating and the system construction adapted for fast deployment. Moreover, the necessary resolution of the thermometry system in the ACOUS experiment requires positioning accuracy better than that in the available commercial devices. This paper discusses these requirements of the acoustic positioning system as well as addressing the issue of communication between the complex and the shore.