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

“这个奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。”私人投资机构要求提供资金，以开发下一代迷你花车，用于现场测量电流和环境变量(荧光、温度、PAR)。这些微型浮标的主要目标是以高时间分辨率(分钟)采样海洋过程，同时空间分辨率为10‘S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基准和时间同步的微型浮标群。该计划通过设计一种新的浮力控制机制来推动，该机制将允许目前的自主水下探索者(AUE)潜水器和较新的、较小的1升大小的迷你AUE潜水器自动剖面，然后浮出水面建立卫星通信。为了测试这一发展，PIS将在一个科学计划中使用这些工具来量化沿海海洋中浮游幼虫的轨迹，并研究在非线性内波中中性漂浮和游泳的浮游生物的平流和斑块形成。在项目结束时，PIS希望展示这些迷你花车在海洋研究中的效用，并为未来的工作建立一支这样的小队。更广泛的影响：这项提案具有广泛的更广泛的影响部分。除了开发一种工具来改变沿海对物理动力学和浮游生物(扩散、积累等)的研究之外，它还涉及一个涉及初中生和高中生的重要推广部分。学生们将建造一个花车并对其进行跟踪。这类活动很可能会激发青年追求科学，特别是海洋学/工程学。一名博士后学者也将在这个项目上获得资助，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.