Utilizing DAS data in Earth Observation and Marine Traffic Monitoring

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is a novel earth observation. Existing telecommunication cables, named dark fiber, are usually utilized as part of DAS network. Due to its inherent feature, high-frequency ambient motion is recorded along the length of the fiber optic cable for long distances. Since the dark fiber cables were placed without given care certain issues namely  ground coupling, the data acquired are excessively noisy compared to the conventional sensors particularly on land. However, the cables lay on the ocean bottom prone to less urban noise source. On the other hand, tha traces from the the marine traffic and water ocean motions are apparen in the DAS time series. This study exhibits the potential of DAS data in monitoring the marine traffic near the shoreline in addition to earth observations. A fiber optic cable with NEC interrogator has been studying since May 2024. A long term data in marine traffic with regular and irregular events were significantly emerged from the huge data with proper detection techniques.