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WHOI Funding
and Awards --> Cecil H. and
Ida M. Green Technology Innovation Awards -->
1998 Abstracts
Abstracts of 1998 Cecil H. and
Ida M. Green Technology Innovation Awards
Developing
Capability to Measure Seafloor Heat Fluxes in Remote
Oceans Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles ABE
Jian Lin
Geology and Geophysics Department
and
Albert M. Bradley
Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department
Observations of seafloor heat flow
provide primary constraints on both the thermal evolution
of oceanic lithosphere and the flux of hydrothermal
fluid through the oceanic crust. Despite their importance,
however, heat flow observations are sparse over much
of the ocean basins because the traditional shipboard
measurements are inefficient, time consuming, and
thus associated with high costs. The availability
of autonomous underwater vehicles, such as ABE developed
at WHOI, provides an exciting opportunity to continuously
collect seafloor heat flow data at much lower costs
and thus significantly improve our knowledge of Earth's
heat flux through the ocean floor. However, ABE is
a neutrally buoyant vehicle that cannot use its own
weight to drive the probe into sediment and thus some
dynamic methods must be used. This is a critical technical
problem that we must solve before the autonomous method
of measuring seafloor heat flux can become reality.
Results of our library research and limited practical
tests show that we have a reasonable chance of making
a dynamic penetrator work. Unfortunately, we are a
long ways from being able to convince the peer review
process and feel that an external proposal is too
risky to get funded at this time. Thus we are looking
to the Green awards to bridge the gap, to give us
a chance to try out ideas, and enable us producing
preliminary results that will be used later to convince
reviewers and program managers of external funding
agencies.
Design, Construction
and Testing of a Sequential Processing Reaction Vessel
(SPRV) for Chemical Elemental Fractionation and
Analysis of Marine Particles and Sediment
Steven J. Manganini
Geology & Geophysics Department
and
Kenneth W. Doherty
Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department
The goal of this project is to develop
a sequential processing reaction vessel (SPRV) capable
of partitioning several key elements in ocean sediment
particles by sequential liquid chemical leaching treatments.
Although elemental partitioning of components within
ocean particle samples is essential in understanding
biogeochemical processes and cycles, its application
has been limited by practical difficulties and cumbersome
chemical leaching procedures in the laboratory. The
proposed reaction vessel dramatically minimizes existing
handling procedures and maximizes efficiency and recovery
rates of the elements, thereby increasing data quality
and sample throughput. It also provides a tool for further
exploring and optimizing new chemical leaching techniques.
We propose to construct a chemically
inert and microwave-transparent reaction vessel able
to withstand elevated temperatures and pressures that
allows for the sequential liquid treatment of particulate
material. A unique built-in filter holder designed to
secure selected filters onto the lower end of the vessel
enables separation of particles from liquid treatments
by filtration thereby permitting continued sequential
processing within the reaction vessel. Performance of
the SPRV will be evaluated by monitoring temperature
and pressure within the reaction chamber during sequential
treatments of different types of reference material.
Analysis of Ca, Mg, Sr, Si, Al and P in each treatment,
as determined by procedures using JCP-ES and ICP-MS
at WHOI, will quantify precision of elemental partitioning
techniques proposed by this method. Existing chemical
analysis of reference material insures complete recovery
of partitioned elements.
A Digital Recording
Tag to Measure the Response of Northern Right Whales
to Sound
Mark P. Johnson
Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department
and
Peter L. Tyack
Biology Department
We propose to develop and test a small
digital recording tag capable of simultaneously sampling
the acoustic environment of the host animal, its orientation,
dive, respiration, and vocal behavior. The motivation
for the tag is the incidence of vessel collision with
highly endangered Northern Right Whales, the cause of
which is unknown. By recording both the sound at the
animal and its response, the new tag will provide unique
information on Right Whale behavior. This information
will help determine what situations put Right Whales
at risk of collision and could lead to significant improvements
in collision mitigation. The tag will take advantage
of new signal processing and memory technologies used
in acoustic communications research at WHOI. If successful,
the digital tag will make possible a wide range of non-invasive
studies into the response of marine animals to environmental
sound.
A Measurement
Platform for Stratified Turbulence
Donald B. Peters, Wayne R. Geyer, John H. Trowbridge
and Glenn McDonald
Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department
Stratified turbulence remains one of
the major unresolved problems of oceanography and fluid
dynamics. Conventional approaches to oceanographic measurements,
such as moorings and profiling CTDs, are inadequate
for measuring turbulent fluxes, because measurement
of the turbulent fluctuations in velocity and water
properties requires a rigid reference frame. We propose
to develop a Stratified Turbulence Mast to resolve turbulent
mixing processes in the top 10-in of the water column.
A 10-in long, rigid mast, equipped with an array of
fast-response turbulence sensors, will extend nearly
vertically downward between the hulls of a catamaran.
This proposal requests funding to design and fabricate
the mast, to deploy it on a catamaran of opportunity
with an in-house array of turbulence sensors, and to
test the measurement system near Woods Hole.
Acceleration
of Isopycnal Float Development for Shelf Studies
Robert C. Beardsley, Steven J. Lentz
Physical Oceanography Department
James F. Lynch
Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department
and
W. Brechner Owens
Physical Oceanography Department
We are proposing to accelerate and
enhance development and testing of a modified version
of the PALACE float (SOLO) for use as a shallow water,
isopycnal float. Owens and Gawarkiewicz are developing
an isopycnal float that will be tracked using a RAFOS
acoustic ranging system with support from a Mellon Award.
Beardsley and Lentz would like to use this float to study
wind-driven upwelling in the upcoming West Coast COOP
program. However, recent work on shallow water acoustics
indicates that additional field testing is required to
demonstrate "proof of concept" prior to proposing purchase
and use of a fleet of these floats in this field program
and several others. Therefore we are requesting funds
to: 1) to resolve technical issues associated with acoustic
tracking of the floats in shallow water; 2) conduct field
tests of the float and the acoustic tracking; and 3) build
a second prototype for use in testing.
The "IRIDIUM
PALACE": A High Resolution, Controllable Float Using
the IRIDIUM Communication System
Raymond W. Schmitt and James R. Valdes
Physical Oceanography Department
A large
array of autonomous floats has been proposed to monitor
the temperature salinity and velocity fields of the
global ocean. Known as ARGO, it will strive for ~300
km float spacing using ~3000 floats. With a float
life of 4 years, 750 floats per year will be required.
Presently, the ARGOS satellite system is used to receive
data from profiling ALACE floats (PALACE). This has
a number of disadvantages, including low bandwidth,
low positioning accuracy and lack of two-way communication.
The low bandwidth means that floats must stay on the
surface for ~24 hours in order to transmit a coarse-resolution
temperature/salinity profile. This is a major problem
for our attempts to achieve a long-lived salinity
sensor, as most of the bio-fouling of the sensor occurs
at the surface. In addition, the low resolution limits
the accuracy of estimates of upper ocean heat and
salt content of interest for climate.
Here
we propose to develop and test a new float communication
technique using the IRIDIUM satellite system being
introduced by Motorola. It will be two-way (and real-time)
to allow adaptive sampling commands to be sent to
the float (e.g., park at a different depth or acquire
more samples in a certain depth interval, etc.).
It will transmit data from anywhere on the globe at
4800 baud, thus allowing surface times of only a few
minutes instead of a day and much greater vertical
resolution in temperature and salinity. It will use
GPS for location, thus improving on ARGOS accuracy.
These are all important issues for the improvement
of float technology so that the best possible job
can be done on the upcoming global float array. We
hope to produce a WHOI system that will prove to be
a standard against which all other floats are judged.
The IRIDIUM
system is comprised of an array of order 66 satellites
that will allow two-way real-time communication anywhere
on the globe. The array is up and scheduled to become
operational for voice communication by year end. However,
data communications will not be activated till mid-year
1999. As it is an intrinsically digital system, it
would not be possible to use analog modems through
the voice system, and would be inefficient in any
case. We want to be prepared to implement our design
as soon as the data modules become available, and
thus request Green funding at this time.
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