UACE2017 Proceedings: The DGA "ALMA" Project: an overview of the recent improvements of the system capabilities and of the at-sea campaign ALMA-2016

• Session:
  Design of new experimental facilities to address future problems in underwater acoustics
• Paper:
  The DGA "ALMA" Project: an overview of the recent improvements of the system capabilities and of the at-sea campaign ALMA-2016
• Author(s):
  Dominique Fattaccioli, Gaultier Real
• Abstract:
  ALMA (Acoustic Laboratory for Marine Applications) is a deployable and autonomous acoustic system, with passive and active sub-systems, designed in 2012 by DGA Naval Systems in order to address future problems in underwater acoustics, especially in coastal waters or shallow waters. \nThe ALMA project has two main objectives: 1) to increase the scientific knowledge of the impact of the environment and of its variability at different temporal and spatial scales, on the acoustic propagation and on the signal processing in the sonar domain, and 2) to collect and share high quality real data (both acoustical and environmental data) with scientists of the underwater acoustics domain, in order to increase the scientific knowledge needed for improving the mastering of sonar performance in such highly variable and fluctuating environments.\nIn this paper, we present an overview of the evolutions of the system and of the improvements in its capabilities realized since 2015. These evolutions address in particular the mechanical structure for the passive array, mainly allowing new array geometry configurations and increasing the number of hydrophones and their spacing range capability.\nWe also present an overview of the at-sea campaign (ALMA-2016) conducted on the continental shelf of the island of Corsica in November 2016. Details are given on all the acoustic and environmental aspects of this one-week at-sea trial mainly dedicated to the impact of the environmental variability and fluctuations on acoustic propagation in shallow and coastal waters.
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Contact details

• Contact person:
  Dr Dominique FATTACCIOLI
• e-mail:
  
• Affiliation:
  DGA Naval Systems
• Country:
  France