Oceanography | Vol. 38, No. 2
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multi-platform network acquired soundscape, acoustic back
scatter, oceanographic, and space-based remote sensing data
that supported high-resolution time series analysis, soundscape
modeling, and ecological modeling to better understand eco
system dynamics and human use in an under-sampled region.
The development of the ALTO lander during the ADEON pro
gram has successfully demonstrated its utility for transloca
tion to numerous other national and international monitoring
efforts. ADEON standardization and visualization products are
now being used globally to explore and compare acoustic data
sets acquired in different geographical regions and with different
hardware systems. Our results indicated that marine mammal
use of the OCS is more complex than previously documented.
Beaked whale species were observed to exhibit site fidelity along
the OCS, and the offshore area of the Blake Plateau was iden
tified as a hotspot for minke whales during the mating season.
Advances in soundscape modeling illustrated that the presence
of individual ships significantly impacts the measured and mod
eled soundscape across the OCS and that acoustic energy is
greater at the seafloor compared to the surface in the ADEON
region. Continuous measures of predator foraging activity and
prey biomass and distribution across multiple years is rare out
side of a coastal setting and has proven valuable for predic
tive modeling of predator presence in changing environmen
tal conditions. Lastly, the partnerships established during the
ADEON program, including the artist-at-sea program, posi
tive interactions with commercial fisherman, and collabora
tion with the Ocean Tracking Network and NOAA’s National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), continue to
highlight the value of ocean acoustics, marine science, and sci
entific research to society.
FIGURE 7. The ADEON visualization suite allows users to explore the overlap of regional acoustic measurements, modeling, and remote
sensing. (a) Main map interface, showing ADEON regional area, modeled ship noise contribution to soundscape, lander locations, and
probe interface windows opened for two landers. Users can select from multiple environmental overlays in the interface window. (b) Tri-level
spectrogram viewer interface showing an approximate week (top), day (middle), and hour (bottom). The different time scales highlight spe
cific sources contributing to the soundscape. A vessel passage is captured in the day scale, and a selected whale call is highlighted at the
hourly level for user playback and download. (c) Event detection heatmap interface, showing cyclic visualization of dolphin click events over
multiple years stacked on top of each other, with a concentration during the nighttime hours, and contributions from a single year high
lighted. The colored sea surface temperature (SST) data are time aligned with the marine mammal detections. (d) Deviations viewer, show
ing times and frequency ranges where it was unusually quiet or loud based on analysis by adjustable-duration moving window.