Model-based localization and tracking of marine mammals

Abstract

Data from the August 2003 experiment conducted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE) are used to localize and track marine mammals. SCORE is a naval training area near the island of San Clemente located in relatively shallow water. The water depth where the experiment was conducted is around 360 m. Data were recorded on a 100-m, eight-element vertical array deployed from the Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) and four bottom-mounted seismometers deployed in an area covering approximately three square kilometers. During the course of the 7-day experiment continuous recording of the ocean environment was made. The recordings contain numerous blue and fin whale calls. Matched field processing was used on the vertical array data to localize and track singing whales. The differences between different animal calls (extended, low frequency calls in the case of blue whales and short, impulsive calls in the case of fin whales) are exploited to track different animal species. Animals were also independently tracked by comparing the predicted (computed using a propagation model) and measured difference in time of arrival recorded in each seismometer pairs. The tracking results obtained from the two techniques are compared.