Evaluating the directivity of compact underwater acoustic recording devices

Commercially available underwater acoustic recorders have become commonplace tools in ocean-acoustics research, due to their ease of deployment, compact size, and relatively low cost. The size of these systems typically results in a configuration with the hydrophone in close proximity to the electronics housing, flotation devices, and other equipment that can degrade the generally assumed omnidirectional response of the hydrophone. The mid-frequency acoustic regime (0.5–10 kHz) is particularly affected due to the similarity between the length-scales of these structures and the corresponding acoustic wavelengths. Calibration measurements made at an open-water test facility with a calibrated source/receiver pair characterized the frequency-dependent receiver directivity for three underwater recording devices with different housings and hydrophones: the PVC air-filled Loggerhead Snap, PVC oil-filled SoundTrap ST300, and titanium air-filled SoundTrap ST600. Furthermore, directivity measurements of a TOSSIT mooring Zitterbart et al., HardwareX (2022) were taken with the SoundTrap ST300 and SoundTrap ST600. Results suggest the frequency-dependent acoustic directivity of the recorders should not be neglected. In particular, the Loggerhead Snap had variations in receive level of over 20 dB as a function of receiver orientation angle and frequency, introducing a bias that obscures spectral levels of the in situ environment.