Development and characterization of an autonomous underwater acoustic recording system

Acoustic monitoring in oceans has grown greatly for several purposes. To meet the needs of an acoustic monitoring program of Petrobras, a Brazilian oil exploration company, an acoustic recorder was developed, called SAASS, an autonomous system for the acquisition of submarine signals. This development had as main goal, the development period and its cost, besides of course, technical requirements for that application. This work has become a very promising experience since it also allowed researches in the area of hydrophone development and acoustic signal analysis methodology. This article will describe the most relevant aspects of the development of SAASS and main strategies adopted to achieve the established objectives of Petrobras program.