By Air and by Sea – Novel Mobile Platforms Bring Acoustic Monitoring to Offshore Wind Farms
May 2021
Featured in: ON&T magazine (Ocean News & Technology)
“The construction and operation of offshore wind farms carries regulatory requirements for acoustic monitoring of both noise emissions from the activity and marine mammals’ vocalizations. The latter reveal the presence of animals that could be at risk from noise exposure or collision with service ships. Such requirements call for innovative monitoring technologies capable of rapid deployment, efficient relocation, and wide area coverage. Autonomous marine vehicles equipped with advanced acoustic receptors, on-board processing, and long-range telemetry are the clear future of this sector. Viable carrier designs include underwater, surface, and even airborne vehicles with water landing capacity; any of these can deploy a single or several hydrophones to sample sound levels in the water.”
Contributed by JASCO’s Roberto Racca.
