Sarda Acoustic Buoy

The SARDA (System of Fast Acoustic Data Acquisition) buoy allows to acquire georeferenced and dated acoustic data and to transfer them in real time at very high bandwidth on a distant receiver PC on shore or at sea.

Fields of application :

• Fast acquisition of environmental data : REA (tomography, seabed characterisation).
• Source detection : radiated sounds, trajectography.
• Traffic detection.
• Identification and localisation of marine mammals.
• Acquisition of theme data sets.
• Underwater communication.
• Wind and rainfall measurements.
• Monitoring of marine pollution.

SARDA is designed to be used as a drifting or shallow depth anchored system.
The high bandwidth allows the acquisition of raw data. The choice of the Ethernet network facilitates the network deployment of several buoys.

Characteristics of a standard SARDA buoy :

Acoustics :

• High-pass filter manually selectable : 80 Hz or 190 Hz.
• Sampling frequency selectable via software : 5500Hz to 44100Hz.
• Adjustable gain : selectable via software : 0, 6, 12 or 18 dB.
• Digitisation : 16 bits Delta-Sigma.
• Dynamics : > 90 dB.
• Sensitivity : - 171 dB re 1 V/µPa / omnidirectional.
• Measuring channels : 2.
• Hydrophone cable length : 7 m.
• Dating : accuracy < 0.1 ms.
• Storage capacity : 40 Gb.

Modem :

• 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Protocol.
• Bandwidth 4.2 Mb/s at 1.3 km.
• Power / Range 0.1 W / >2km (optional 1W / >4km).

Power supply :

• 24 Ah lead battery.
• 14hr autonomy in intensive use.

Structure :

• Weight : 29 KG.
• Size (excl. Antenna and ballast) : 0.9 m.
• Overall length : 3.2 m (can be dismantled).