Seismic Data Acquisition System for Navy Oceanographic Measurements

The seismic data acquisition systems presently owned by the Naval Oceanographic Office NAVOCEANO and customarily used aboard NAVOCEANO ships, especially the AGORs, have been in service for at least 10 years, and in some instances for almost 20. The technology they are based upon is at least 25 years old. Technically, these systems are still capable of obtaining data of limited usefulness. However, since they lack benefits of some near-revolutionary development that has taken place in so-called exploration-type seismology during the last quarter-century, the data collection efforts of the Navy laboratories such as the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity NORDA are seriously compromised. This report describes a highly flexible, state-of-the-art seismic system that would incorporate most of the latest developments while retaining the desirable features of the old systems. Keywords hydrophones seafloor world ocean.