Signal Processing for Marine Mammal Localization and Deconvolution of Biological Acoustic Transients

Concerns about the effects of human interference in the oceanic environment upon the life and habits of marine mammals have been recently raised. In response, researchers have taken interest in processing all relevant information to better understand this interference with the hope and goal of protecting marine life. In this context, the development of signal processing methods for the exploration of sounds generated by marine mammals in the ocean is being pursued. Success of this research will enable the tracking of mammals, and the reconstruction of the signals they produce, through remote acoustic sensing. Localizing marine mammals in the ocean and identifying the sounds they generate requires the establishment of a link between physics (acoustics) and signal processing. The normal modes approach is being adopted for modeling the acoustic signal propagation in the oceanic environment Models will then be sought that capture the time and frequency structure of biological signals. The combination of acoustics and signal analysis is expected to facilitate inversion of the acoustic field measured at an array in the ocean for the estimation of the location of sound-transmitting marine mammals and the actual form of the signals they transmit.