SALP: A Submerged Autonomous Launch Platform for Drifting Instrumentation

卫星跟踪的水面漂浮器、声学跟踪的水下漂浮器以及越来越多的主动压舱剖面漂浮器提供了一种有效且相对便宜的方法，可以在大范围的空间和时间尺度上描述海洋环境。许多沿海和蓝水过程研究需要（或将受益于）在几天到几年的时间内重复部署漂流仪器。在最好的情况下，依靠船舶和/或飞机进行串行仪器部署可能会昂贵且后勤困难。在最坏的情况下，舰载部署可能无法在偏远地区、不利天气或季节性冰盖地区，或应对严重风暴等偶发事件。为了解决这一问题，该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，该平台能够在较长时间内发射任意组合的漂流仪器（例如，水面漂浮器、RAFOS漂浮器、剖面PALACE漂浮器）。水下自主发射平台（SALP）部署在水深达2000米的标准海洋系泊上，将使浮标和漂浮物能够(a)根据用户定义的时间表按时间发射，(b)通过实时声学遥控，或(c)根据当地环境条件自适应发射。据信，SALP的发展将通过促进对快速变化、地理偏远或环境不利地区的海洋环流进行密集和具有成本效益的研究，为海洋学界提供广泛的利益，并将使研究人员能够解决目前在财政或后勤上无法维持的困难研究问题。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eff的同时在海上规划和保持互动存在

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