Source bearing estimation in the Arctic Ocean using ice-mounted geophones

This paper investigates the use of geophones mounted on the surface of Arctic sea ice for estimating the bearing to acoustic sources in the water column. The approach is based on measuring ice seismic waves for which the direction of particle motion is oriented radially outward from the source. However, the analysis is complicated by the fact that sea ice supports several types of seismic waves, producing complex particle motion that includes significant nonradial components. To suppress seismic waves with transverse particle motion, seismic polarization filters are applied in conjunction with a straightforward rotational analysis (computation of particle-motion power as a function of angle). The polarization filters require three-dimensional (3D) measurements of particle motion, and apply theoretical phase relationships between vertical and horizontal components for the various waves types. In addition, the 180 degrees ambiguity inherent in the rotational analysis can be resolved with 3D measurements by considering particle motion in the vertical-radial plane. Arctic field trials were carried out involving two components. First, a hammer source was used to selectively excite the various ice seismic waves to investigate their propagation properties and relative importance in bearing estimation. Second, impulsive acoustic sources were deployed in the water column at a variety of bearings and ranges from 200-1000 m. For frequencies up to 250 Hz, source bearings are typically estimated to within an average absolute error of approximately 100.