A submarine search and rescue expert in Australia, Frank Owen, tells the BBC his “confidence went up by an order of magnitude” when he heard reports of banging being detected by floating sound detectors.
“There's a couple of reasons for that,” he explains. “Firstly, on board this craft is a retired French navy diver. He would know the protocol for trying to alert searching forces… on the hour and the half hour you bang like hell for three minutes.”
He says the sound signal being picked by a buoy close to the surface also suggests that the sub itself could be near or at the surface.
“Below about 180 metres, the water temperature drops very rapidly,” he explained. “That creates a layer that the [sonar signal] bounces off. But if you’re in the same depth water it tends to go quite straight.”
Even if Titan is at the surface, it will be difficult to spot. Very little of the small, white vessel sits above the water.
But using an array of sound-detecting buoys to triangulate the signal could narrow down its position.
“There's a couple of reasons for that,” he explains. “Firstly, on board this craft is a retired French navy diver. He would know the protocol for trying to alert searching forces… on the hour and the half hour you bang like hell for three minutes.”
He says the sound signal being picked by a buoy close to the surface also suggests that the sub itself could be near or at the surface.
“Below about 180 metres, the water temperature drops very rapidly,” he explained. “That creates a layer that the [sonar signal] bounces off. But if you’re in the same depth water it tends to go quite straight.”
Even if Titan is at the surface, it will be difficult to spot. Very little of the small, white vessel sits above the water.
But using an array of sound-detecting buoys to triangulate the signal could narrow down its position.
