Abstract: Underwater acoustic studies in the Arctic Ocean play important roles in subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection, and marine environmental parameter inversion. Development of an integrated polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system to obtain major environmental parameter data and subglacial acoustic characteristics information of the long-term continuous air-ice-sea interface is important for the study of subglacial hydrologic and acoustic environmental characteristics. In this study, we investigated the design and application of a polar ice acoustic buoy monitoring system, which comprises a main control module, power supply module, data acquisition module, data remote transmission module, and remote monitoring center, through development and integrated testing of the various modules, data acquisition and transmission tests, and field tests. Continuous observation of the main environmental parameters of the air–ice–sea interface in the polar region and the acoustic characteristics of the subglacial surface was realized. Field application of the system was completed during China’s 12th Arctic scientific expedition in August 2021. The system operated reliably and stably in the low temperatures and harsh polar environment, and realized the remote transmission of various polar environmental observation parameters, including underwater acoustic data.

Key words: Arctic, acoustic buoy, monitoring system, data transmission