Antarctic Ocean LIVE!

The first time I hit this link I heard some weird noises, could be ice shifting. It's kinda spooky!


You can listen to the underwater sound of the Antarctic Ocean with a delay of a few seconds here.

 Please note, this transmission is not meant for entertainment primilary, but for scientific research. It is highly compressed (24kBit Ogg-Vorbis), so sound quality is not perfect. Additionally, sounds may be very faint. The amplifier settings are a compromise between picking up distant animal voices and not overcharging the system by nearby calving icebergs. So please beware of sudden extreamely loud events.

Providing an acoustic live stream of the Antarctic underwater soundscape is a formidable challenge. 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, 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 bandwith of the satellite link, jamming of the WLAN link due to storms, or energy shortage, the connection might temporarily be down or scrammed. In this case, please dial in later!

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) PALAOA - Livestream

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