| definition |
- The SOund SUrveillance System, or SOSUS, is a fixed component of the
U.S. Navy's Integrated Undersea Surveillance Systems(IUSS) network
used for deep ocean surveillance during the Cold War. Installation
of SOSUS was begun in the mid 1950s by the U.S. Navy for use in
antisubmarine warfare. SOSUS consists of bottom mounted hydrophone
arrays connected by undersea communication cables to facilities on
shore. The individual arrays are installed primarily on continental
slopes and seamounts at locations optimized for undistorted long range
acoustic propagation. The combination of location within the oceanic
sound channel and the sensitivity of large-aperture arrays allows the
system to detect radiated acoustic power of less than a watt at ranges
of several hundred kilometers. In October, 1990, the Navy granted
approval to NOAA/PMEL to access the SOSUS arrays in the North Pacific
to assess their value in ocean environmental monitoring,as part of the
U.S. government's dual-use initiative.
The data collection systems developed by NOAA's VENTS Program have
been in place since August 29, 1991. Acoustic signals from the north
Pacific Ocean are monitored and recorded at the Newport, Oregon facility
of NOAA/PMEL. This is the primary tool for both continuous monitoring of
low-level seismicity around the northeast Pacific Ocean and real-time
detection of volcanic activity along the northeast Pacific spreading
centers in support of the VENTS research program in ocean hydrothermal
systems. Real-time ridge crest monitoring potentially permits the timely
on-site investigation of hydrothermal and magmatic emissions.
Data acquisition is accomplished by combining portions of the Navy's
processing facilities with NOAA-designed systems installed at the U.S.
Naval Ocean Processing Facility (NOPF) at Whidbey Island, Washington.
Analog outputs from each hydrophone element are available either through
direct cabling or remote data linkage. Navy systems perform adaptive beam
forming on digitized hydrophone signals, with the outputs converted back to
analog electrical signals. These analog hydrophone and beam-former outputs
are accessed by the NOAA-supplied systems, where the signals are low-pass
filtered, digitized, and temporarily buffered on hard disk. The digital
data are provided to a wide-area network (WAN) based on Network File System
(NFS) protocol, linking (by encrypted, dedicated telephone line) the
acquisition computer to an analysis system located at NOAA laboratories in
Newport, Oregon.
For more information on U.S. Navy SOund SUrveillance System (SOSUS)see:
"http://newport.pmel.noaa.gov/geophysics/sosus_system.html"
Address inquiries to:
Chris Fox - Principal Investigator
NOAA/PMEL
OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center
2115 S.E. OSU Drive
Newport, Oregon 97365 USA
VOICE: (541) 867-0276
FAX: (541) 867-0356
Email: fox@pmel.noaa.gov
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| Abstract from DBPedia | The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS themselves classified. The unclassified name Project Caesar was used to cover the installation of the system and a cover story developed regarding the shore stations, identified only as a Naval Facility (NAVFAC), being for oceanographic research. In 1985, as the fixed bottom arrays were supplemented by the mobile Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) and other new systems were coming on line, the name itself changed to Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS). The commands and personnel were covered by the "oceanographic" term until 1991 when the mission was declassified. As a result, the commands, Oceanographic System Atlantic and Oceanographic System Pacific became Undersea Surveillance Atlantic and Undersea Surveillance Pacific, and personnel were able to wear insignia reflecting the mission. The system was capable of oceanic surveillance with the long ranges made possible by exploiting the deep sound channel, or SOFAR channel. An indication of ranges is the first detection, recognition and reporting of a Soviet nuclear submarine coming into the Atlantic through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap by an array terminating at NAVFAC Barbados on 6 July 1962. The linear arrays with hydrophones placed on slopes within the sound channel enabled beamforming processing at the shore facilities to form azimuthal beams. When two or more arrays held a contact, triangulation provided approximate positions for air or surface assets to localize. SOSUS grew out of tasking in 1949 to scientists and engineers to study the problem of antisubmarine warfare. It was implemented as a chain of underwater hydrophone arrays linked by cable, based on commercial telephone technology, to shore stations located around the western Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to Barbados. The first experimental array was a six-element test array laid at Eleuthera in the Bahamas in 1951, followed, after successful experiments with a target submarine, in 1952 by a fully-functional 1,000 ft (304.8 m), forty-hydrophone array. At that time the order for stations was increased from six to nine. The then-secret 1960 Navy film Watch in the Sea describes the production arrays as being 1,800 ft (548.6 m) long. In 1954, the order was increased by three more Atlantic stations and an extension into the Pacific, with six stations on the West Coast and one in Hawaii. In September 1954, Naval Facility Ramey was commissioned in Puerto Rico. Others of the first Atlantic phase followed, and in 1957 the original operational array at Eleuthera got an operational shore facility as the last of the first phase of Atlantic systems. The same year, the Pacific systems began to be installed and activated. Over the next three decades, more systems were added; NAVFAC Keflavik, Iceland in 1966 and NAVFAC Guam in 1968 being examples of expansion beyond the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. Shore upgrades and new cable technology allowed system consolidation until by 1980 that process had resulted in many closures of the NAVFACs with centralized processing at a new type facility, Naval Ocean Processing Facility (NOPF), that by 1981 saw one for each ocean and mass closing of the NAVFACs. As the new mobile systems came on line, SOSUS arrays themselves were deactivated and some turned over for scientific research. The surveillance aspect continues with new systems under Commander, Undersea Surveillance.音響監視システム（英語: Sound Surveillance System, SOSUS、ソーサス）は、アメリカ海軍の水中固定聴音機（海底に設置されたパッシブ・ソナー）を用いた海洋監視システム。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOSUS) |
