Partners: Wu-Jung Lee and Emilio Mayorga
SSEC Engineers: Don Setiawan and Valentina Staneva
Research Goals and Domain
Scientists commonly use active sonar systems to collect data about mid-trophic level animals, such as zooplankton and small fish that play an important role in marine ecosystems. Echosounders, or fish-finders, are high-frequency sonar systems that emit pulses of sound and record the reflections from animals, the seabed, and other objects underwater. These instruments are proven to be more efficient and effective than many other sampling methods such as nets. As a result, they have been widely adopted by the ocean sciences community, resulting in a massive amount of data.
Software Problem
These datasets can be challenging to analyze and are often under-utilized due to the lack of software tools and infrastructure that can support manipulation and computation of large volumes of ocean sonar data. Popular commercial software solutions are extremely costly, with per-license costs on the order of tens of thousands of dollars annually.
Software Solution
SSEC worked with researchers from UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory to build Echopype; a Python library for ocean sonar data processing in an interoperable and scalable way. This library leverages modern cloud computing to support efficient computation of large quantities of ocean sonar data in a robust infrastructure that aids in the exploration, monitoring, and management of living marine resources.
Impact
Echopype is powering the large-scale processing of 20 years of water column sonar data in the cloud, revolutionizing marine research by prominent agencies like NOAA Fisheries. New open-source libraries are also driving further innovation, providing researchers across the globe a platform to collaborate and interact organically through open development.