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Auditory Displays

Auditory Displays

As part of the “Accessible Oceans” AISL Pilots and Feasibility study, we have inclusively designed several auditory displays for the perception and understanding of ocean data in informal learning environments (ILEs). The auditory displays are comprised of data sonifications and contextual audio supports (dialogue, auditory icons, and music). The data comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) and the display is based on the OOI Nuggets developed by Dr. Leslie Smith. The displays were built using a human-centered design approach comprised of multiple steps of building and evaluating auditory displays and their components with input from various stakeholder groups, including the blind and low-vision (BLV) community. Read below for descriptions and links to listen to the project's latest auditory displays, including different versions.

Graphic that contains two data sets of Coastal carbon dioxide flux between ocean and atmosphere. These data sets show the seasonal cycles of CO2 air-sea gas exchange during 2017 at two coastal locations – the Endurance Array in the NE Pacific (shown as black dots), and the Pioneer Array in the NW Atlantic (shown as white dots). Most of the outgassing — or CO2 release from the ocean into the atmosphere, occur during the summer months. CO2 absorption — a net flux of CO2 from the atmosphere into the ocean occurs throughout the year.

Net flux of CO2 between Ocean and Atmosphere

Version 3 (Synthetic Absorption Sound)

The seven tracks make up an auditory display of the net flux of carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atmosphere. The display is based on an NSF-funded OOI Nugget. The sound design of absorption in data sonifications (tracks 2, 3, and 4) has been updated from a "slurping" parameter-controlled sound (version 2.0) to a synthetic filter parameter-controlled sound (version 3.0), based on user feedback.

Listen online to the 6-minute 21-second auditory display (uses Samply).

Access or cite the auditory display tracks (via Zenodo).

Graphic that displays time-series plot of the long term record of seafloor from 1997 through 2021 in the Axial Caldera in the NE Pacific Ocean. The 1998, 2011, and 2015 volcanic eruptions are labelled in the graph and two horizontal, red dashed lines mark the 2011 and 2015 inflation threshold. In 2021, the 2011 inflation threshold was breached, but there hasn’t been an eruption yet.

Longterm Axial Seamount Inflation Record

Version 2, Full-length Auditory Display

The thirteen tracks make up an auditory display of the Longterm Axial Seamount Inflation Record. The display leverages data from NOAA PMEL that extend the record of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) data back to 1997. This audio display focuses on the long-term pattern observed by bottom pressure recorders where the seafloor inflates (lifts), then an eruption event occurs, and the seafloor drops.

Listen online to the 7-minute 5-second auditory display (via Samply).

Access or cite the auditory display tracks (via Zenodo).

Graphic that displays time-series plot of the long term record of seafloor from 1997 through 2021 in the Axial Caldera in the NE Pacific Ocean. The 1998, 2011, and 2015 volcanic eruptions are labelled in the graph and two horizontal, red dashed lines mark the 2011 and 2015 inflation threshold. In 2021, the 2011 inflation threshold was breached, but there hasn’t been an eruption yet.

Longterm Axial Seamount Inflation Record

Short version

The thirteen tracks make up an auditory display of the Longterm Axial Seamount Inflation Record. The display leverages data from NOAA PMEL that extend the record of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) data back to 1997. This audio display focuses on the long-term pattern observed by bottom pressure recorders where the seafloor inflates (lifts), then an eruption event occurs, and the seafloor drops.

Listen online to the 2-minute 27-second auditory display (via Samply).

The graphic contains two sets of data as two vertical panels aligned to show the same 36 hour period across the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse. The top panel graph contains a single line that depicts the daily solar radiation cycle. The bottom panel is a color image of water depth and shows zooplankton daily vertical migration movement from Bio-acoustic Sonar data.

Zooplankton Daily Vertical Migration Gets Eclipsed!

Version 2

The nine tracks make up an auditory display of the daily vertical migration of zooplankton off the coast of Oregon. The display is based on the NSF-funded OOI Nugget. Please note that there is no track 1B in this version. We removed track 1B in order to reduce redundancy in the display.

Listen online to the 8-minute 2-second auditory display (via Samply).

Access or cite the auditory display tracks (via Zenodo).

graph that depicts changes in the bottom pressure of the ocean over one month. The data was taken from sensors on the Juan de Fuca plate in the NE Pacific Ocean. The changes in bottom pressure in the graph depict daily fluctuations of the tidal cycle across the entire graph, but is marked by a large shift in bottom pressure in the middle of the data on April 24, 2015. The bottom pressure shifted as a result of the volcanic eruption — an indication that the seafloor dropped.

2015 Axial Seamount Eruption

Version 2

The ten tracks make up an auditory display of the 2015 Axial Seamount Eruption. The display is based on the NSF-funded OOI Nugget. Over the course of a 24-hour period, several Cabled Array instruments detected ~8,000 earthquakes and a seafloor drop of 2.4 m. The data within this nugget are from a bottom pressure and tilt sensor deployed on the Axial Seamount.

Listen online to the 7-minute 1-second auditory display (via Samply).

Access or cite the auditory display tracks (via Zenodo).

A time-series plot of five meteorological measurements — relative wind speed, precipitation, surface current, temperature, and salinity — are shown as individual panels stacked vertically. The five time-series plots show the response to the storm passage of Extratropical Storm Hermine over the Pioneer mooring array off the coast of New England during the first week of September 2016. A green band over the data during Sept 5th and 6th highlights how the mooring documented an increase in wind speed, an increase in precipitation, an increase in surface current speed, a decrease in sea surface temperature, and an increase in sea surface salinity.

Ocean Response to Extratropical Storm Hermine

Version 3

The twenty-one tracks make up an auditory display of the ocean response to extratropical storm Hermine in 2016. The display is based on the NSF-funded OOI Nugget. Please note that the Ocean Labs data nugget does not include sea wave height as part of its graph that we sonified. Storms also impact sea wave height, and Dr. Leslie Smith acquired this data from the OOI so that we could include it in the sonification and auditory display. Version 3 updates the wave height sonification design. The design in version 2 had frequency decreasing as waves grew larger to model the physical world; however, we switched the timbre and frequency mapping based on conference and user testing feedback.

Listen online to the 9-minute 28-second auditory display (via Samply).

Access or cite the auditory display tracks (via Zenodo).

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