Deep Listening: Submarine Surveillance, the SOFAR channel, & the Sanctuary Sound Program | EP 3

This program explores the transformation of a secret military surveillance network into a crucial scientific tool for ocean exploration, and an anomalous feature of a certain part of the ocean that started it all.

During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy developed the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), using underwater hydrophones to detect Soviet submarines by listening to the ocean. This technology, originally designed for surveillance, has since been repurposed for scientific research.

The hydrophones that once monitored the oceans for Soviet submarine activity now form the keystone of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sanctuary Soundscape Monitoring Project (SanctSound) and are vital tools to understanding marine life, monitoring earthquake an volcano activity, and enforcing nuclear test bans.

Sourced sounds, all recorded with the SanctSound, formerly SOSUS, hydrophone array: Gray whales, Humpback whales, LFA sonar, Fin whales, boat engines, echosounders, damselfish, and unknown anthropogenic noises.

The Sanctuary Soundscape monitoring program is a collaboration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Navy. Over 300 TB of data has been made available through this project, much of it in the form of raw audio, and all in the public domain.

The Sanctuary Soundscape website is available at https://sanctsound.ioos.us

Access to the raw audio data is available through the National Centers for Environmental Information Passive Acoustic Data Viewer
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/passiv...

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Composed, written, narrated, and edited by Sam Rowell
Audio mastered by Sean McCann
Video sourced and edited by Licheng She
Video produced by Scarlett Wang

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Fundamental Resonance is a broadcast series exploring a new approach to the audition of acoustic, mechanical, and electromagnetic vibrations. Each episode combines an audio essay with a soundscape, composed of examples of the phenomena discussed, as a way to explore the unreachable, reveal the hidden, and manifest what lies beyond the senses.

Fundamental Resonance is a project for Energy Fields: Vibrations of the Pacific, an exhibition, publication, and public program co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Chapman University. For more info, visit energyfields.la.

Energy Fields: Vibrations of the Pacific is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information, visit pst.art.