Development and deployment of a swarm of mini-floats for studying coastal physical and biological dynamics

“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”pi要求资助开发下一代微型浮标，用于现场测量电流和环境变量（荧光、温度、PAR）。这些小型浮标的主要目的是在高时间分辨率（分钟）下对海洋过程进行采样，同时空间分辨率为10米。为了实现这一目标，pi建议开发、制造、测试和部署空间地理参考和时间同步的微型浮子群。该计划得益于一种新的浮力控制机制的设计，该机制将允许当前的自主水下探索者（AUE）车辆和一种更新的、更小的、1升大小的MINI-AUE车辆自主地绘制轮廓，然后浮出水面建立卫星通信。为了测试这一发展，pi将在一个科学项目中使用载具来量化沿海海洋中浮游生物幼虫的轨迹，并研究非线性内波中中性浮力和游动浮游生物的平流和斑块形成。在项目结束时，ppi希望展示这些微型漂浮物在海洋研究中的效用，并为未来的工作建立一个小型的此类车辆车队。更广泛的影响：本提案具有广泛的更广泛的影响组成部分。除了开发一个将改变沿海物理动力学和浮游生物（扩散、积累等）研究的工具之外，它还涉及一个重要的外联部分，涉及中学生和高中生。学生们将建立一个浮动和跟踪它。这种类型的活动很可能会激发年轻人追求科学，特别是海洋学/工程。该项目还将资助一名博士后学者，他将在尖端实验室获得宝贵的工程/海洋学经验。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."The PIs request funding to develop the next generation of mini-floats for in situ measurement of currents and environmental variables (fluorescence, temperature, PAR). The principal objective of these mini-floats is to sample oceanic processes at high temporal resolution (minutes) with concurrent spatial resolution of 10's of meters. To accomplish this goal the PIs propose to develop, fabricate, test, and deploy swarms of mini-floats that are spatially geo-referenced and temporally synchronized. The plan is facilitated by the design of a new buoyancy control mechanism that will permit the current Autonomous Underwater Explorer (AUE) vehicles and a newer, smaller, 1 liter sized MINI-AUE vehicle to autonomously profile and then surface to establish satellite communication. To test the development, the PIs will use the vehicles in a scientific program to quantify trajectories of meroplanktonic larvae in the coastal ocean, and investigate advection and patch formation of neutrally buoyant and swimming plankton in nonlinear internal waves. At the conclusion of the project, the PIs hope to demonstrate the utility of these mini floats in ocean research and also have a small fleet of such vehicles for future work. Broader Impacts:This proposal has an extensive broader impact component. Beyond developing a tool that will transform coastal studies of physical dynamics and plankton (dispersal, accumulation etc') it involves an important outreach component involving middle and high school students. The students will get to build a float and track it. This is the type of activities that are likely to excite youth to pursue science in general and oceanography/engineering in particular. A post-doctoral scholar will also be funded on this project who will gain valuable engineering/oceanographic experience within a cutting edge lab.