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Citation
Miller, B.S. and Double, M. (2017) Sonobuoy deployment log of the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage to the Southern Ocean, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.4225/15/59b62769d78f6, Accessed: 2026-05-02
Title
Sonobuoy deployment log of the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage to the Southern Ocean
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/59b62769d78f6
Created Date
2017-09-07
Revision Date
2025-12-10
Expected Date of Data Release
2017-09-11
Data Version
1
Parent record
AAS_4102_2013_Antarctic_Blue_Whale_Voyage

Description

The sonobuoy deployment log is a csv file that contains metadata on the deployment of sonobuoys deployed during the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage. The first row contains column headers, while each subsequent row contains deployment information for a single sonobuoy.

Data that were recorded during each sonobuoy deployment are:
buoyID: Buoy ID number is the sequential number of the buoy starting at 1 for the first buoy of the trip.

startDate: Date (UTC) at the start of the sonobuoy deployment (YYYY-MM-DD)

startTime: Time (UTC) at the start of the sonobuoy deployment (HH:MM:SS) 2 digit hour with 24 hour clock and leading zero.

stopDate: Date (UTC) at the end of the sonobuoy deployment (YYYY-MM-DD). While the recording is in progress this should be 1,2 4 or 8 hours after the startTime based on sonobuoy setting.

stopTime: Time (UTC) at the end of the sonobuoy deployment (HH:MM:SS). While the recording is in progress this should be 1,2 4 or 8 hours after the startTime based on the sonobuoy setting.

lat: Latitude of deployment in decimal degrees. Southern hemisphere latitudes should be negative.

long: Longitude of deployment in decimal degrees. Western hemisphere longitudes should be negative.

alt: Depth of the sonobuoy deployment in metres. For DIFAR sonobuoys either 30, 120 or 300.
recordingChannel: This is the channel number within the recorded wav-file that contains audio from this buoy as would be reported by Matlab. Channel numbers start at 1 (1-indexed) so usually this will be 1, 2 or 3.

magVariation: The magnetic variation in degrees. Positive declination is East, negative is West. At the start of a recording this will be entered from a chart. As the recording progresses, this should be updated by measuring the bearing to the vessel.

sonobuoyType: The an/ssq designation for the sonobuoy. Usually 53B, 53D, 53F, HIDAR, 57A/B, or 36Q.

receiver: The type and serial number of the calibrated radio receiver (WinRadio) used to receive the VHF signal. (wr15725, wr17274, wr15274, or wr15273)

preamp: The (unitless) gain in dB of any preamplifier (including the instrument preamp from the Fireface UFX). Usually 10 or 20 dB.

adc: The analog-to-digital converter (adc) used to digitize the audio. This is the sound card name and gain. All data were recorded on an RME Fireface UFX, so Ufx10 would be the RME Fireface UFX with a gain of 10 dB.

vhfFreq: The VHF channel number used to receive the sonobuoys. Sonobuoys have 99 pre-set VHF channels between

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Purpose

This dataset contains the location, time, and details of sonobuoys deployed during the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage. It also contains information about the acoustic recording chain that are essential for obtaining calibrated sound level measurements and calibrated acoustic bearings to the sound source.

Quality

Occasional errors in data entry may have occurred when creating new entries in the Sonobuoy Deployment Log, however most data-entry issues were fixed immediately, or at some later date during the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage.

Access

These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Temporal Coverages

Spatial Coverages

Data Resolution

Latitude Resolution:
50 Metre(s)
Longitude Resolution:
50 Metre(s)
Vertical Resolution:
10 Metre(s)
Temporal Resolution:
1 Second(s)

Science Keywords

Additional Keywords

  • DIFAR
  • PASSIVE ACOUSTIC MONITORING
  • FV AMALTAL EXPLORER

Locations

  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

Platforms

  • SHIPS

Instruments

  • SONOBUOYS
  • GPS RECEIVERS
  • HYDROPHONES

Researchers

  • miller, brian (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)
  • double, mike (INVESTIGATOR)

Use Constraints

This dataset has been collected under the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP). The IWC-SORP ethos is one of open collaboration, communication and data sharing. The Data User will acknowledge the use of the IWC SORP dataset by the following statement:
Data provided by the International Whaling Commission’s Southern Ocean Research Partnership were all based upon non-lethal samples collected under a protocol approved by the Australian Antarctic Program Animal Ethics Committee (AAPAEC). These data were provided by the Partnership for the purpose of collaborative investigation.


This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4102_sonobuoyDeploymentLog2013 when using these data.

Project

    ISO Topic

    • BIOTA
    • OCEANS

    Dataset Language

    • English

    Orignating Centre

    • Australian Antarctic Division

    Dataset Progress

    • COMPLETE

    IDN Node

    • AMD/AU
    • AMD
    • CEOS

    Publications

    • Miller, B.S. et al. (2014) Red Shift, Blue Shift: Investigating Doppler Shifts, Blubber Thickness, and Migration as Explanations of Seasonal Variation in the Tonality of Antarctic Blue Whale Song, PLoS ONE, 9(9), p.e107740, J.-B. Charrassin, ed.
    • Miller, B.S. et al. (2014) Blue whale vocalizations recorded around New Zealand: 1964-2013, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 135(3), 1616-23
    • Miller, B.S. et al. (2015) Validating the reliability of passive acoustic localisation: a novel method for encountering rare and remote Antarctic blue whales., Endangered Species Research, 26(3), 257-269

    Metadata Revision History

      2017-09-07 - record created by Brian Miller. 2025-12-10 - record updated by Dave Connell.

    Creative Commons License