Detection of hydroacoustic signals on a fiber-optic submarine cable

A ship-based seismic survey was conducted close to a fiber-optic submarine cable, and 50 km-long distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) recordings with air-gun shots were obtained for the first time. We examine the acquired DAS dataset together with the co-located hydrophones to investigate the detection capability of underwater acoustic (hydroacoustic) signals. Here, we show the hydroacoustic signals identified by the DAS measurement characterizing in frequency-time space. The DAS measurement can be sensitive for hydroacoustic signals in a frequency range from 10-1 Hz to a few tens of Hz which is similar to the hydrophones. The observed phases of hydroacoustic signals are coherent within a few kilometers along the submarine cable, suggesting the DAS is suitable for applying correlation analysis using hydroacoustic signals. Although our study suggests that virtual sensor's self-noise of the present DAS measurement is relatively high compared to the conventional in-situ hydroacoustic sensors above a few Hz, the DAS identifies the ocean microseismic background noise along the entire submarine cable except for some cable sections de-coupled from the seafloor.

Automated summary

A ship-based seismic survey was conducted near a fiber-optic submarine cable, obtaining 50 km-long distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) recordings with air-gun shots for the first time. The DAS measurement shows the ability to identify and analyze underwater acoustic signals, but the self-noise of the virtual sensor in the present DAS measurement is relatively high compared to in-situ hydroacoustic sensors.