| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: This dataset contains raw and processed data that were obtained and corrected during the 2015 NZ-Aus Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage. No post-processing or quality control of data has occurred other than what took place at sea. Purpose The primary task of the passive acoustic team was to detect, track and target blue whales and to monitor for vocalisations from other species of marine mammals. This dataset contains acoustic recordings from Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording (DIFAR) sonobuoys that were deployed throughout the 2015 NZ-Aus Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage. During the 42 day voyage 310 sonobuoys were deployed yielding 520 hours of acoustic recordings. Two models of sonobuoys were used during the voyage: 2 were AN/SSQ-53F (Ultra Electronics: SonobuoyTechSystems, USA) and 308 were re-lifed AN/SSQ-955-HIDAR (deployed in DIFAR compatibility mode; Ultra Electronics Sonar Systems, UK). A total team of four dedicated acousticians monitored round-the-clock for blue whales and in all weather conditions. After deployment, sonobuoys sent acoustic and directional data to the ship via a VHF radio transmitter. Radio signals from the sonobuoy were received using an omnidirectional VHF antenna (PCTel Inc. MFB1443; 3 dB gain tuned to 144 MHz centre frequency) and pre-amplifier (Minicircuits Inc. ZX60-33LN-S+) mounted on the mast of the ship at a height of 21 m. The preamplifier was connected to a power splitter via LMR400 cable and signals were received with two WiNRaDiO G39WSBe sonobuoy receivers. The radio signal from sonobuoys was adequate for monitoring and localization out to a typical range of 12-15 nmi. Received signals were digitised via the instrument inputs of a Fireface UFX sound board (RME Fireface; RME Inc.) with a gain set to 20 dB (8.396 V peak-peak voltage limits). Digitised signals were recorded on a personal computer as two-channel 48 kHz 24-bit WAV audio files using the software program PAMGuard (Gillespie et al. 2008). Directional calibration The ...
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