WHOI Funding and Awards --> Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Technology Innovation Awards --> 1996 Abstracts

Abstracts of 1996 Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Technology Innovation Awards

Measurement of Aerosol Properties from Buoys: Size and Mass Distribution Using a Quartz Crystal Microbalance Cascade Impactor
Edward Sholkovitz, Geoff Allsup, Richard Arthur and David Hosom

We propose to adapt a Quartz Crystal Microbalance Cascade Impactor (QCM-CI) for the real time measurement of mass and size distribution of aerosols from buoys. This instrument has the potential to provide fundamental data on the physical properties of aerosols in the marine boundary layer. The basic physical properties of aerosolsæspecifically their mass, number and size distributionsæhave importance in the field of climate (radiant heat balance), air pollution and atmospheric optics. The major objective is to determine how the QCM-CI instrument responds to variations in the abundance of seasalt aerosols in the marine boundary layer (MBL). Since buoy deployment is premature, we plan to test this instrument at the UOP (Upper Ocean Processes group) site next to WHOI's Environmental Systems Laboratory (ESL). Being only 200 yards from Vineyard Sound, the mass and size distribution of seasalt aerosols at the UOP-ESL site should vary greatly with wind speed and direction.

The first task will be to build a housing unit and inlet system so that the QCM-CI instrument can be mounted on the UOP-ESL tower and operated from the shed. Software development is needed so that we can use the algorithm provided by California Instruments, Inc. Once on the tower, the QCM-CI instrument will be run in a semi-automated mode -1 to 3 day tests under different wind fields. We need to gain experience in the instrument's reproducibility and stability, and its response in periods of low and high aerosol abundance. One potential problem is that the quartz crystal microbalances may be over loaded when operated in the MBL. In summary, field testing is needed to assess the capability of using a QCM-CI instrument over the oceans. If this instrument lives up to its potential, then our results will strengthen proposals to ONR and NSF on buoy-mounted aerosol sensors.

Utilization of Class 1 UNOLS Vessels for Submarine Cable Recovery and Deployment
Andrew D. Bowen, Alan D. Chave, and Joseph L. Coburn, Jr.

Over the past decade, there has been increasingly strong interest in using submarine telephone cable technology as a means to both power and provide for two-way, real-time communications to long-term seafloor geophysical and oceanographic instrumentation. Costs associated with installing new submarine cables to support these observatories remains a dominant portion of the costs for such observatories. This proposal intends to study the possibility of retrieving abandoned submarine telephone cable with the intent of re-deploying this cable in support of these planned observatories. The product of this work will be a WHOI blue cover technical report describing cable handling procedures on a UNOLS Class 1 research vessel and specifying the capabilities and cost of specialized equipment. This report will be authoritative and a pre-requisite to convincing both the funding agencies and scientific colleagues that the novel approach of using a research vessel as a cable ship is both eminently reasonable and economically desirable. This would help preserve WHOI's existing technical lead in scientific cable operations and is expected to open up substantial funding opportunities as USSOP develops.

LANCE: A Simple Method to Bury a Broadband Seismograph in the Seabed
John A. Collins, F. Beecher Wooding, and Kenneth R. Peal

Over the last 5-10 years, the deployment on land of portable arrays of broadband (0.001-10 Hz) seismographs has revolutionized our understanding of the upper mantle beneath the continents. Seismologists are eager to deploy these instruments in the deep ocean. However, these new seismographs should not be deployed in the manner used to deploy the short-period (0.1-10 Hz) seismographs traditionally used by marine seismologists, namely on the seabed. Horizontal-component, ground motion data recorded by seismometers placed on the seabed are corrupted by tilt-induced signals, particularly at low frequencies. Theoretical arguments and some experimental evidence strongly suggest that the only sure way of obtaining high-fidelity, horizontal-component data from the ocean floor is to bury the seismometer. The currently preferred method to bury a seismometer in the seabed requires a ship with a dynamic positioning capability, an underwater thruster system, and an on-bottom, motor-driven, hydraulic ram to emplace the sensor. We propose to develop a much simpler, less time-consuming, and cheaper method such that ~10-20 seismographs can be deployed from a standard research vessel on a typical 30 day leg.

Development of a High Temperature Combustion Discrete Injection Total Dissolved Nitrogen Analyzer
Edward T. Peltzer

The development of a prototype high temperature combustion discrete injection (HTC/DI) total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) analyzer is proposed based upon recent advances in HTC/DI - DOC analytical technology. A DOC high temperature combustion furnace will be modified to optimize oxidation conditions for nitrogen, and the gas purification line prior to the chemiluminescence detector will be re-designed specifically for the through-put of nitric oxide. Once the system has been optimized for maximum sensitivity and analytical precision for all forms of nitrogen, samples of local interest (e.g. Vineyard Sound or Waquoit Bay) will be run as a demonstration of proof-of-concept. The development of this instrument will fill a gap in the sea-going arsenal available to marine chemists and biologists, and open a door to rapid at-sea measurements of TDN (and thus DON) that will be comparable to the current state-of-the-art for DOC determinations. Such measurements are essential to increasing our understanding of the role of dissolved organic matter in the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen, the functioning of the microbial loop and the importance of DON in the nitrogen budgets of coastal ponds.

A Compact Bathyphotometer
Kenneth H. Brink and Paul D. Fucile

Design, construct, and test an economical underway bioluminescence detector that can be used at a fixed depth (e.g., mounted on the NRL TUPS (Towed Underway Profiling System)) or in an undulating mode (e.g., the SeaSoar). This instrument will be useful for scientists investigating bioluminescence, biological populations, and physical-biological coupling, for example, near ocean fronts.

A Steerable Elevator System for Deep Submergence Science Programs Using ROV Jason and Alvin
Steven Liberatore and Daniel J. Fornari

For our deep submergence operations, elevators play a crucial role in extending the payload of both Jason and Alvin. Our current elevators fall passively to the seafloor and, despite our best efforts, they often land hundreds of meters from the worksite due to currents. We propose to augment our present elevators to allow them to be directed remotely by the navigator aboard the support ship. This capability would significantly increase our productivity in scientific sampling and instrument deployment tasks. We have critical experience and some relevant components, but this project also contains some interesting engineering challenges.

Continuous-Flow Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Robert J. Schneider, John M. Hayes, Timothy I. Eglinton, Ann P. McNichol, and Karl F. von Reden

We will build a carrier-gas system to deliver sb-micromole samples of carbon dioxide into a compact RF plasma ion source suitable for use in WHOI's state-of-the-art AMS system. By leading to the introduction of continuous-flow technology, it has the potential to accelerate significantly the pace of all radiocarbon analyses.

On-line AMS would be particularly applicable to compound-specific analyses of organic compounds and to rapid, high-throughput analyses of carbonate minerals of paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic interest. The ion source is presently under collaborative development at a national laboratory. The interface, which is based on systems recently developed for use in stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry, will be tested there.