IQOE Hydrophone Database | International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)

IQOE Hydrophone Database

Submitted by eurban on Thu, 02/10/2022 - 15:13

IQOE has been compiling metadata about hydrophone deployments for the past two years. This database includes records for about 600 current and past hydrophone deployments. A map as of 8 August 2021 is given at https://www.iqoe.org/systems. I am in the process of updating this static map.

We know that static maps on a specific date do not present a complete picture of hydrophone deployments. We are in the process of updating the hydrophone database to make it possible to create maps for a range of dates to provide more complete information. We are also adding the possibility to show mobile deployments that start and end at different geographic coordinates.

The updated database will be integrated with the IQOE Website. It will not contain acoustic data for the hydrophone deployments, but will contain metadata for each one, including contact information, that will make it easier to obtain data.

If you have not yet submitted hydrophone metadata for the existing database—for current or past deployments and stationary or mobile deployments—and would like to get your metadata into the database, please submit your metadata on the input form.

Apart from providing a community resource, IQOE hopes to use the database to identify data holders who can help create time series of ambient ocean sound for different parts of the ocean by the end of IQOE in 2025.

Please forward this email to anyone you think would be interested in submitting metadata.

Best regards,

Ed Urban

IQOE Project Manager

Status

IQOE is in its 9th year as a 10-year project and continues to implement of its Science Plan (available here). IQOE has successfully coordinated a variety of activities in ocean acoustics and bioacoustics through IQOE working groups on the use of acoustics to assess biodiversity, the importance of acoustic observations in the Arctic Ocean, standards for reporting ocean acoustic and bioacoustic data for IQOE, software for making acoustic observations comparable worldwide, and recommendations for implementation of an Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable for the Global Ocean Observing System. IQOE progress has been documented since June 2018 through IQOE Newsletters and since the beginning of the project through other products. IQOE identified 2020 as the Year of the Quiet Ocean because of evidence that ocean sound decreased because of decreases in human activities in the ocean due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next Steps

Activities in 2024 will include actions to help implement the Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable Implementation Plan; continuation of new activities on low-cost ocean acoustic observing systems and expansion of the Open Portal to Underwater Sound (OPUS), implementation of the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds, sponsorship of the second World Ocean Passive Acoustic Monitoring Day; and meetings of IQOE working groups and Science Committee.