Measurements of underwater noise in the eastern Fram Strait using a deep-sea recorder

Abstract

This paper presents data from a year-long acoustic recording in the seasonally ice-covered ocean north of Svalbard (eastern Arctic). A mooring equipped with an AMAR-G3-UD recorder (hydrophone at depth 770 m) was deployed at depth 980 m during open-water conditions in July, 2016 and remained during periods of partial to full ice-cover. The one-year spectrogram (10 Hz–2 kHz) shows intermittent periods of elevated noise levels in periods of partial ice cover, and a significant drop in noise levels in the fully ice covered period. Daily median noise levels in the months of partial ice cover correlate positively with ocean wave height and negatively with range to the ice edge. Noise levels during the ice-covered period are comparable to 1980’s measurements from the eastern Arctic.This paper presents data from a year-long acoustic recording in the seasonally ice-covered ocean north of Svalbard (eastern Arctic). A mooring equipped with an AMAR-G3-UD recorder (hydrophone at depth 770 m) was deployed at depth 980 m during open-water conditions in July, 2016 and remained during periods of partial to full ice-cover. The one-year spectrogram (10 Hz–2 kHz) shows intermittent periods of elevated noise levels in periods of partial ice cover, and a significant drop in noise levels in the fully ice covered period. Daily median noise levels in the months of partial ice cover correlate positively with ocean wave height and negatively with range to the ice edge. Noise levels during the ice-covered period are comparable to 1980’s measurements from the eastern Arctic.