Long-range propagation of airgun-array signals: Comparing numerical simulations and acoustic recordings in the Ionian sea

Marine seismic surveys contribute to acoustic pollution, and the sounds they produce may be audible by marine mammals at several hundred kilometers distance. To evaluate the potential effects of such sounds on fauna and translate them into effective policies and mitigation measures, stakeholders require quantitative estimations of acoustic fields. We compare simulations of airgun-array signals produced during the Upper LIthosphere Ship Subduction Exploration survey in the Ionian Sea with the signals recorded 650 kilometers away at the cabled seabed observatory NEMO-SN1. JASCO’s Applied Sciences’ Airgun Array Source Model was used to predict the sound levels for two configurations of 18-element airguns, and the signal was then propagated in a realistic environment utilizing JASCO’s Full-Waveform Range dependent Acoustic Model from the source to the position of the receiver station. There is a qualitative agreement between the simulated, denoised, and recorded signals of the airgun arrivals. However, the signal simulated at 650 kilometers from the source stretches and shows fewer high-frequency components compared to the received one. Our study quantitatively shows that the peaks produced by a large airgun array during a scientific cruise, at 160–180 Hz are not masked by ambient noise even in busy shipping locations at a distance of 650 km.