The depth dependence of ambient noise in deep ocean trenches

Abstract

A series of experiments aimed at measuring the power spectrum and vertical and horizontal noise coherence (directionality) in the deep ocean were carried out between 2009and 2015 using a family of autonomous instrument platforms named “Deep Sound.” Deep Sound is a free-falling acoustic recorder designed to descend from the ocean’s surface to a pre-assigned depth where it drops an iron weight and returns to the surface under its own buoyancy, while recording pressure time series on four hydrophones with vertical and horizontal spacing over the bandwidth 5 Hz—30 kHz. The complete vertical noise profile was recorded from the surface to 6 km in the Philippine Sea, 8.5 km in the Tonga Trench, and 9 km in the Serena and Challenger Deeps in the Mariana Trench. Generally, the vertical noise coherence is well described by the Cron & Sherman surface noise model with some depth-dependence explained by seawater attenuation and local sound speed variations. Below the reciprocal or critical depth (depth at which the so...