Improve the accuracy of TDOA measurement using the Teager-Kaiser energy operator

In this paper we present a method to improve the accuracy of the time difference of arrivals (TDOA) estimators for reducing the uncertainty in localizing sperm whales using passive acoustics. More precisely we suggest the use of Teager-Kaiser energy operator for the enhancement of recordings made by hydrophones before applying an estimator of TDOA. Using data from the Atlantic undersea test and evaluation center (AUTEC) and standard estimators for TDOA like the generalized cross correlation (GCC) approaches or statistical methods based on LMS, we show that the suggested pre-processing method significantly improves the accuracy of these estimators. Simulating various signal to noise ratio (SNR) conditions, we are able to show the robustness of the pre-processing approach against additive noise.