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Underwater Passive Aquatic Listener in a pool
James O'Donnell, center, and Michael M. Whitney, left, are both professors, researchers and oceanographers in the Department of Marine Sciences at Avery Point. Here they are studying water velocities and density (i.e. salinity and temperature) variation over a series of underwater sand waves in eastern Long Island Sound. The gray metal structures are frames for Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers, or ADCPs, which are deployed to sit on the bottom of the Sound and measure water velocity by sending an acoustic signal at regular intervals up towards the surface. At right is O'Donnell's former technician, Adam Houk. The goal of the trip was to better understand how water moves over and around these large scale structures on the sea floor, and how far vertically and horizontally their influence extends.
two aquatic plants

The UPAL sensor is a novel underwater instrument that provides real-time processing of underwater sound for continuous acquisition, classification and quantification of geophysical, biological and anthropogenic sounds.  Due to its adaptive and low power sampling, UPAL can be used for long-term observations of both near-shore and deep-ocean environments to support a variety of offshore applications.

The UPAL sensor was developed in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Nystuen (University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory) under NSF Physical Oceanography funding.