Deep Listening: Submarine Surveillance, the SOFAR channel, and the Sanctuary Sound Program

This program explores the transformation of a secret military surveillance network into a crucial scientific tool for ocean exploration, and an anomalous feature of a certain part of the ocean that started it all.

During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy developed the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), using underwater hydrophones to detect Soviet submarines by listening to the ocean. This technology, originally designed for surveillance, has since been repurposed for scientific research.

The hydrophones that once monitored the oceans for Soviet submarine activity now form the keystone of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sanctuary Soundscape Monitoring Project (SanctSound) and are vital tools to understanding marine life, monitoring earthquake an volcano activity, and enforcing nuclear test bans.

Sourced sounds, all recorded with the SanctSound, formerly SOSUS, hydrophone array: Gray whales, Humpback whales, LFA sonar, Fin whales, boat engines, echosounders, damselfish, and unknown anthropogenic noises.

Over 300 TB of data has been made available through this project, much of it in the form of raw audio, and all in the public domain.

The Sanctuary Soundscape website is available at https://sanctsound.ioos.us

Access to the raw audio data is available through the National Centers for Environmental Information https://www.ncei.noaa.gov

Fundamental Resonance is a broadcast series that takes a new approach to the audition of acoustic, mechanical, and electromagnetic vibrations. This project is not just about sound, though. It's also about ways to interpret the inaudible and what things we cannot sense can reveal about the universe.

In each episode, inaudible acoustics and sonified data act as a bridge between signal and soundscape, uncovering forces that shape our environment and experience, yet are rarely perceived.

These audio essays are composed of sounds you would not normally encounter or even be able to hear. They are made up of sonic artifacts left behind by movements of energy and captured through different methods of scientific inquiry.

Fundamental Resonance is an audio supplement to the art exhibition Energy Fields: Vibrations of the Pacific. Co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Chapman University, this exhibition runs from September 15, 2024 - January 19, 2024 as part of PST ART.

Fundamental Resonance is a production of Sam Rowell, Special Collections, Fulcrum Arts, and LOOKOUT FM. Episodes begin September 15th and will also be broadcast on terrestrial radio at KFQM-LP 101.5 FM Pacific Palisades.