TECHNICAL PANEL
Metrology for Underwater Acoustics: Standards, Instrumentation, and Emerging Applications
The field of underwater acoustics is rapidly evolving, offering a dynamic environment where theory and practice meet to address real-world challenges. This Technical Panel aims to capture this frontier, connecting innovative theoretical insights with practical, multidisciplinary applications in engineering and technology, bringing together researchers, engineers, and practitioners working on the science, technology, and applications of underwater acoustics across diverse domains.
The guiding questions to be explored in this panel are as follows:
- Where are the biggest gaps in underwater acoustic metrology?
- How can National/International Metrology Institutes, universities, and industry collaborate more effectively?
- What standards or calibration methods need urgent revision?
- How can metrology support environmental protection and sustainable ocean use?
Panel Objectives and Themes
- Examine current measurement standards for underwater acoustics.
- Discuss instrument calibration, traceability, and uncertainty evaluation.
- Explore new metrological challenges in ocean monitoring, underwater communication, and environmental acoustics.
- Highlight industrial, scientific, and regulatory applications.
- Foster collaboration between metrology institutes, academia, and industry.
Potential Thematic Sessions and Key Points
- Standards and Traceability in Underwater Acoustics
- Primary standards for hydrophone calibration;
- Free field, pressure, and reciprocity calibration methods;
- Uncertainty budgets and traceability chains;
- International standards (IEC TC 87).
- Instrumentation & Calibration Technologies
- Hydrophones, vector sensors, broadband receivers and autonomous platforms;
- Calibration in tanks, lakes, and open-sea environments;
- Environmental influences and corrections (temperature, salinity, depth);
- Advances in self calibrating systems
- Underwater Acoustic Propagation & Environmental Metrology
- Sound speed profile measurement and related uncertainties;
- Propagation modeling and environmental issues;
- Challenges in long-range and shallow-water acoustics;
- Impact of ocean variability on acoustic measurements;
- Metrological approaches to environmental compensation.
- Applications: From Marine Life Monitoring to Underwater Communications
- Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM);
- Target Motion Analysis (TMA);
- Underwater communication systems;
- Acoustic positioning and navigation (USBL, Ultra-Short BaseLine acoustic positioning systems, LBL, Long BaseLine acoustic positioning systems).
- Emerging Trends & Future Challenges
- Quantum sensors for underwater acoustics;
- AI based signal processing and uncertainty quantification;
- Metrology for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs);
- Needs for new international standards.
