Abstract
The Perennial Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean (PALAOA) was developed to study the underwater vocal behavior of cetaceans and pinnipeds and to monitor ambient noise levels in the Southern Ocean. Establishing an autonomous long-term observatory in Antarctica is challenging mainly because of the harsh weather conditions and logistic constraints. The project goal was to build an autonomously operating, passive-acoustic observatory which allows scientists (1) to reliably and continuously record the Antarctic underwater soundscape year-round, (2) to record all vocalizations produced by marine mammals in the study area (frequency range of the recordings: 10 Hz to 96 kHz), (3) to locate vocalizing marine mammals and other underwater sound sources, (4) to obtain information on ambient noise levels in the area, and (5) to access and analyze the incoming acoustic data stream in real time at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) located in Bremerhaven, Germany.
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Notes
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Definition: The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean or the South Polar Ocean, is, by definition of the International Hydrographic Organization, the oceanic division encircling Antarctica. It comprises the southern-most waters of the world’s oceans south of 60° S latitude.
- 2.
PALAOA = Hawaiian; means (sperm) whale, whale tooth
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Sharon Nieukirk and Sara Heimlich for their helpful comments on the book chapter. Field work and maintenance of PALAOA would not be possible without the help of the AWI logistics department and the Neumayer Station overwintering teams. The PALAOA project is partly funded by the Bremerhavener Gesellschaft für Innovationsförderung und Stadtentwicklung (BIS), the European Union (EU), and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.
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Klinck, H., Kindermann, L., Boebel, O. (2016). PALAOA: The Perennial Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean—Real-Time Eavesdropping on the Antarctic Underwater Soundscape. In: Au, W., Lammers, M. (eds) Listening in the Ocean. Modern Acoustics and Signal Processing. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3176-7_8
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