Application of Low-Frequency Acoustic Signals to Study Underwater Gas Seepage

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Abstract

Remote sensing of seeps, the release of gas (mainly methane) from the seabed, is an urgent task. The importance of detecting seeps in Arctic shelf zone region is constantly growing due to the degradation of underwater permafrost and the release of gas hydrates. Gas bubbles scatter underwater sound and their resonant frequencies correspond are in the kilohertz range for seeps observed in nature. A promising method for detecting and studying seeps is probing with underwater sound near the denoted resonant frequency. This corresponds to a decrease in the operating frequency relative to the traditional method of studying high-frequency sonars, so the proposed method will be classified as low-frequency in this study. This method expands the study area due to the low sound attenuation in water and the high scattering level near at bubble resonances. Estimates of the scattering strength were carried out taking into account collective interaction (group effects) of bubles. The possibility of using low-frequency hydroacoustic systems to detect seeps has been demonstrated using the results of a full-scale experiment using a simulated bubble jet as an example. A data processing method for detecting nonstationary scatterers is proposed.

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About the authors

D. A. Kosteev

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: dkosteev@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod; Nizhny Novgorod

N. A. Bogatov

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: dkosteev@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod

A. V. Ermoshkin

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University

Email: dkosteev@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod; Nizhny Novgorod

I. A. Kapustin

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University

Email: dkosteev@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod; Nizhny Novgorod

A. A. Molkov

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University

Email: dkosteev@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod; Nizhny Novgorod

D. D. Razumov

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: dkosteev@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod

M. B. Salin

Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: mikesalin@ipfran.ru
Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod

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Supplementary files

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2. Fig. 1. (a) - Example of unsteady oscillations (unsteady scattering). (b) - Dependence of the target force of an ideal bubble at normal pressure on the radius at a fixed frequency of 1090 Hz

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3. Fig. 2. Target force of 1 m3 (scattering force) of a liquid volume with a = 3 mm bubbles estimated by MGE: at the resonant frequency (f0 = 1087 Hz), near resonance (df = 100 Hz) and within the soft-sphere model

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4. Fig. 3. (a) - Schematic of field experiment - remote sensing: 1 - hydrophone antenna, 2 - hydroacoustic transmitter, 3 - compressor, 4 - generated sip, 5 - radar. (b) - Schematic of in-situ experiment - close-in methods: 6 - stereo camera, 7 - ADCP. (c) - Photo of the sip obtained by one camera of the stereo pair

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5. Fig. 4. Measurement of ADCP vertical velocity during sip generation

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6. Fig. 5. Dependence of vertical velocity on bubble radius

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7. Fig. 6. Radar picture of bubble jet exit to the surface

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8. Fig. 7. Spectral characteristics of the signals recorded in the experiment: (a) - direct signal, (b) - signal scattered on the sip, (c) - non-normalised scattering levels and (d) - example of the pulse shape of the direct signal at a frequency of 2000 Hz. Values (a), (b) and (d) correspond to the signal levels at the elements of the receiving antenna

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9. Fig. 8. Time sweeps of signals received by the antenna phased in the direction to the sip: (a) - LFM signal with correlation processing. The white dashed line indicates the time intervals that contained the signal scattered by the sip. (b) - 2000 Hz tone signal using a filter matched to the signal spectrum

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10. Fig. 9. Bubble column scattering force from time (pulse numbers), locating signal: (a) - tone signal f = 2000 Hz, (b) - LFM signal f = 1500-2500 Hz

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11. Fig. 10. Correlation function of the signals obtained in the 1st cycle and in the subsequent cycles. The first column - autocorrelations. (a) - Direct signals, (b) - echoes from the sip. Signal frequency 2.5 kHz, sampling frequency 24 kHz

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12. Fig. 11. Comparison of the results of basic processing and the described method of inter-pulse subtraction, frequency 2500 Hz, (a) - phased signal level, (b) - phased signal level corrected by range

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13. Fig. 12. Sonogram as a function of vertical angle, averaged over 8 pulses, at a frequency of 2500 Hz using the method of inter-pulse subtraction. Levels of the received signal in dB relative to the conventional unit with range correction correspond to contrast levels

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