![]() ![]() ![]() A single P-8 can deploy over 120 buoys.Īlong with these buoys, the Poseidon uses a whole suite of technology that includes its own acoustic sensor, synthetic aperture radar (Sar) to detect, classify and track surfaced submersibles and detect periscopes a long way off, an electro-optical/infrared turret that can identify submersible exhaust, Electronic Support Measure (ESM) as an electromagnetic sensor, particularly useful in tracking the positions of radar emitters, and even a hydrocarbon tracking system to "sniff" the presence of diesel electric military submarines. The arrangement of buoys like these is the one of the most classified secrets of anti-submarine warfare. Fired from a rotary launcher at a high altitude, air parachuted Multistatic Active Coherent (Mac) buoys generate multiple sonar pulses over time in order to last longer and extend their search range. It does this by deploying one of the most effective ways of tracking a submarine: sonobuoy fields. Rather like a game of Battleships, the Poseidon's aircrew uses a grid pattern to work out where a submersible is not, and then closes in on where it might be. ![]() However, it can fly 12,000ft (3,660m) higher, and faster too. The Poseidon's range is much shorter than the P-3: 2,250 km (1,400 miles) compared to 9,000km (5,600 miles). The Poseidon looks familiar because it is: the aircraft is derived from the Boeing 737 passenger plane. Other planes scouring the Atlantic include the C-130 Hercules and the relatively new Boeing P-8 Poseidon, known as the most advanced maritime patrol craft in the world. However, the P-3 is not the only aircraft involved in the search. The presence of a known wreckage of a large steel hulled vessel like the Titanic makes using this technique harder. If an aircraft equipped with the detectors flies over a large mass of metal within its detection range, then it will pick it up. The Lockheed P-3 Orion is also equipped with magnetic anomaly detectors, which detect tiny disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field caused by metallic submarine hulls. You would need (at least) three of those static buoys to be able to triangulate the sound source to get a position fix." Acoustic noise travels far in water, so that is both good and bad news. "A surface ship propellor which would be continuous. "The fact the acoustic noises are 30 mins apart is a great sign," says Jamie Pringle, a reader in forensic geosciences at Keele University in the UK. It picked up a regular banging noise at 30-minute intervals, something that experts suggest are a sign they are being made by human beings. ![]() The aircraft heard the noise after dropping sonar buoys, which drifted on the surface, listening for sounds that nature would be unlikely to make. The four-engine turboprop P-3 Orion, which detected the mysterious banging noise on Wednesday, first entered service in 1962 and is based on the Lockheed Electra airliner. Yet as the lost Titan sub shows, submersibles remain very difficult to find, especially at depths of 3.8km (12,400ft) where the wreck of the Titanic is found. The fact that these aerial hunters are packed with advanced new technology would seem to give them the advantage. It's usually a cat-and-mouse game between aircraft and submarines that want to stay hidden. Often based on civilian designs, these machines deploy a suite of impressive-sounding sensors to locate military submarines under the sea. Hunting for submersibles is traditionally the exclusive job of some of the largest and most technologically-advanced aircraft in any air force. How can aircraft flying high above the waves detect something so deep underwater? The signal continues to be investigated and analysed, say officials. On Wednesday, the US coastguard announced that a Canadian P-3 aircraft had identified unexplained underwater noises, apparently banging at half-hour intervals. Ever since the Titan submersible was confirmed lost in the Atlantic this week, planes have been combing the ocean to hunt for it beneath the waves. ![]()
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