This is what the sonar analysts at the Australasian Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre at HMAS Albatross are seeing and interpreting.

Once received, the data is transferred thousands of kilometres across the country to the secretive facility at the Nowra naval base.

There, staff assess if it is of natural origin or sourced from specific electronic equipment, possibly the flight data recorder from the missing plane.

The Australasian Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre primarily works with the navy’s submarine program.