Creating Alace B--A New Instrument in the Family of Neutrally Buoyant Oceanic Drifters and Profilers

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9314259 Webb Webb Research Corporation is a small business that specializes in design and construction of profilers and neutrally buoyant floats for ocean science investigations. The company will design, con- struct, and field test six prototypes of a derivative Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE-B). The primary focus will be the development of a new CO2-based buoyancy generation engine that will be simpler and lighter than previously employed mechan- isms for controlling the drifter's depth. ALACE drifters are neutrally buoyant instruments that drift at a precise pressure gradient within the ocean. They have the capability of carrying a variety of scientific sensors. By changing buoyancy, they can ascend to the surface to telemeter data ashore, then change buoyancy again to sink to their predetermined depth to make more measurements. ALACE-B is designed to operate in the upper 400 meters of the oceans and make up to 200 vertical excursions. Isopyncal drifters, such as ALACE, comprise an important asset to the ocean science research community, and the ALACE-B will provide a new low-cost, upper-ocean capability that meets the scientific requirements of a variety of planned research topics.