ForestIR: Physics-Informed Forest Sound Simulation for Array-Based Bioacoustic Remote Sensing

2026-07-07

AI Summary

Field testing of microphone arrays in forest environments is hindered by high costs, low repeatability, and uncontrolled environmental variables. To address these challenges, this work proposes a physics-based, reproducible simulation framework that, for the first time, integrates the physical mechanisms of sound propagation with controllable parameters of forest structure, atmospheric conditions, and array configuration to generate high-fidelity synthetic array recordings. The framework employs physics-driven impulse response modeling, signal convolution, and background noise control to facilitate optimization of source localization and robustness evaluation in bioacoustic monitoring. Experimental results demonstrate that the simulated data accurately capture the influence of environmental factors on localization performance, with simulated impulse responses showing strong agreement with real-world measurements.

Abstract

Microphone array-based passive acoustic monitoring is increasingly used for biodiversity sensing in forests. However, design and evaluation of array systems and configurations remains difficult since field recordings are costly, difficult to reproduce, and provide limited control over forest and atmospheric conditions. We present ForestIR, a physics-informed and reproducible simulation framework that links forest and environmental conditions to microphone-array recordings for bioacoustic remote sensing. Through a more realistic sound propagation method and a systematic control over array design and environmental factors, ForestIR provides a practical simulation framework for optimizing array-based monitoring systems, especially for sound source localization purposes. ForestIR generates source-microphone impulse responses (IRs) under user-controlled forest and atmospheric conditions, and renders synthetic array recordings by convolving test signals with controlled background noise. We evaluate and demonstrate realistic features of ForestIR through experiments based on localization sensitivity to forest layout and atmospheric conditions, and also comparison between simulated IRs with sine-sweep IR measurements from a field experiment. ForestIR provides a practical way to test how forest and ground conditions, atmospheric state, and array geometry affect bioacoustic localization, and can support microphone-array design, robustness testing, and synthetic-data generation for passive acoustic monitoring.

Problem

• passive acoustic monitoring
• microphone array
• bioacoustic remote sensing
• sound propagation
• forest environment

Innovation

• physics-informed simulation
• microphone array
• bioacoustic remote sensing
• sound propagation
• impulse response