Environmentally Adaptive Arctic navigation Signal Processing

The OASIS/WHOI team will design and develop a long-range under-ice acoustic navigation and telemetry system. The Phase I work has resulted in a much-improved model for under-ice acoustic propagation and an in-depth exploration of the potential for regional scale (200-500 km) acoustic navigation and communication. Phase II work will focus on bounding the design problem and selecting a suitable frequency band, source manufacture and mooring design for the development and demonstration of an under-ice navigation and telemetry system. The gap in scientific knowledge will be addressed through collaboration on three experiments including an icebreaker cruise (FRAM13), an ice-camp (ICEX14) and a long-term long-range acoustic transmission test. Acoustic model development will involve implementation of a new ice-model and validation with observations and the literature. WHOI will use existing and new data to explore performance limits in modulation, detection and adaptive equalization. The OASIS/WHOI team will build from the previous tasks to converge on a specific design point for a prototype system. The signal design will include decisions on carrier frequency, bandwidth, coding, and receiver structure. The hardware design will include identification of a source, driver, power supply, control computer and other mechanical/electrical details.