SALP: A Submerged Autonomous Launch Platform for Drifting Instrumentation

P.I.FratantoniOCE-0136255卫星跟踪的表层漂浮物、声学追踪的地下漂浮物以及日益增多的有源压载剖面浮子提供了一种在广泛的空间和时间尺度上描述海洋环境的有效且相对廉价的手段。许多沿海和蓝水过程研究需要(或将受益于)重复部署漂流仪器，时间从几天到几年不等。在最好的情况下，依靠船只和/或飞机进行串联仪器部署可能代价高昂，在后勤上也很困难。在最糟糕的情况下，在偏远地区、恶劣天气或季节性冰盖地区，或者在应对严重风暴等突发事件时，舰载部署可能是不可能的。为了解决这一问题，本提案概述了开发和现场测试一种紧凑、低成本的系泊平台的努力，该平台能够在较长的时间内下水任意混合的漂流仪器(例如水面漂浮器、RAFOS浮标、测绘宫殿浮标)。水下自主发射平台(SALP)部署在标准海洋系泊设备上，最深可达2000米，它将使漂浮物和漂浮物能够(A)根据用户定义的时间表定时下水，(B)通过实时声学遥控，或(C)根据当地环境条件自适应下水。据信，SALP的开发将通过促进对快速变化、地理偏远或环境恶劣地区的海洋环流进行深入和具有成本效益的研究，为海洋学界带来广泛的好处，并将使研究人员能够解决目前在资金或后勤上无法承受的困难研究问题。作为自主海洋观测系统的一个组成部分，SALP将允许调查人员在促进效果的同时投射并保持在海上的互动存在

P.I. FratantoniOCE-0136255Satellite-tracked surface drifters, acoustically tracked subsurface floats, and a growing family of actively ballasted profiling floats provide an effective and relatively inexpensive means of describing the ocean environment over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Many coastal and blue-water process studies require (or would benefit from) the repetitive deployment of drifting instrumentation over periods of days to years. At best, reliance on ships and/or aircraft for serial instrument deployment can be expensive and logistically difficult. At worst, ship-based deployments may be impossible in remote locations, areas of unfavorable weather or seasonal ice cover, or in response to episodic events such as severe storms. To address this problem this proposal outlines an effort to develop and field-test a compact, low-cost moored platform capable of launching an arbitrary mixture of drifting instruments (e.g. surface drifters, RAFOS floats, profiling PALACE floats) over an extended time period. The Submerged Autonomous Launch Platform (SALP), deployed at depths as great as 2000 m on a standard oceanographic mooring, will enable floats and drifters to be launched (a) by time according to a user- defined schedule, (b) by real-time acoustic remote-control, or (c) adaptively on the basis of local environmental conditions. It is believed that the development of SALP will provide broad benefit to the oceanographic community by facilitating intensive and cost-effective studies of ocean circulation in rapidly changing, geographically remote, or environmentally hostile regions, and will enable investigators to address difficult research problems that are presently financially or logistically untenable. As a component of an autonomous ocean observing system, SALP will allow investigators to project and maintain an interactive presence at sea while promoting the eff