Transmitting live from the Ocean below the Antarctic Ice: “Providing an acoustic live stream of the Antarctic underwater soundscape is a formidable challange. After all, more than 15000 km lie between Antarctica and our institute in Germany. Underwater sound is recorded by means of two hydrophones by PALAOA (Perennial Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean), an autonomous, wind and solar powered observatory located on the Ekström ice shelf (Boebel et al., 2006).

The data stream is transmitted via wireless LAN from PALAOA to the German Neumayer Base. From there, a permanent satellite link transmits the data to the AWI in Germany. A constant hiss pervading the signal is the natural, isotropic background noise made audible here through the use of ultra sensitive hydrophones. Additional broad band noise caused by wind, waves and currents adds to it on occasion. Due to the limited bandwidth of the satellite link, jamming of the WLAN link due to storms, or energy shortage, the connection might temporarily be down or scrammed.”

You can listen to the underwater sound of the Antarctic Ocean with a delay of a few seconds. [MP3 audio stream. OGG-Vorbis audio stream – provides better sound quality at a lower bitrate, for a list of compatible players please check out www.vorbis.com.] [via]