Underwater Vertical Electric Field Detection

Information System Laboratories, Inc. (ISL) proposes to team with ERAPSCO, a joint venture of USSI and Sparton, the world''''s leading sonobuoy manufacturers, to develop a low-cost underwater E-field sensor capable of collecting all electric field signals emanating from submarines. In particular, a sensor capable of measuring the vertical component of the field in addition to the horizontal components will be developed. This will enable exploitation of all low-frequency electric field signals emitted by submarines and offers new detection modalities that will facilitate vessel classification, discrimination from surface vessel track, and data fusion with acoustic sensors. Data will be collected in Phase I for various floating and on-bottom configurations to validate sensor and noise models and will be used to determine the optimal aperture size and electrode location and make recommendations for an engineering prototype of a compact low-cost three-axis electric field sensor. This information will be used in Phase II to develop and test a prototype sensor with the support of ERAPSCO.