Distributed Acoustic Sensing for detecting near surface hydroacoustic signals

Abstract

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is a technology in which a fiber-optic cable is turned into an acoustic sensor by measuring backscatter of light caused by changes in strain from the surrounding acoustic field. In October 2022, 9 days of DAS and colocated hydrophone data were collected in Puget Sound near Seattle, WA. Passive data was continuously recorded for the duration and a broadband source was fired from several locations and depths on the first and last days. This dataset provides direct comparisons between DAS and hydrophone measurements, and demonstrates the ability of DAS to measure acoustics signals up to ~500Hz.