Collaborative Research: Developing A Prototype Drifter to Measure the Oceanic Geomagnetic Field

PI的要求资金，以建立一个廉价的磁漂移，工程以及一个典型的，假设驱动的NSF项目，研究一个特定的地区。他们设想了一种数据收集模式，调查人员在他们希望用磁场数据研究的区域上游释放一支廉价的表面漂流者舰队。漂移器经过研究地点，收集所需的数据。可以获得这些相对小、低功率和便宜的磁传感器，并将其与漂移器内的电路组合或集成。由于漂流物移动缓慢，磁力计可以设置为不经常读取地磁场，保持低数据率。海洋磁场数据对于了解海洋盆地的起源、演化和结构至关重要。海洋磁条异常不仅记录了地球？地球磁场的极性反转也是地磁极性时间尺度的基础，并用于重建海洋盆地的历史。这些异常最好通过海面磁力测量来解决。卫星磁力测量虽然在全球范围内，但缺乏详细解决这些磁条异常的横向分辨率。虽然我们对大多数海洋盆地有一个工作知识，但有些地区，如南大洋，只有稀疏的船迹覆盖。在最近的一次世界数字磁异常图（WDMAM，Purucker，2007年）的全球汇编中，可用的数据非常稀少，因此使用了磁异常模型来帮助插入数据。运输时间昂贵，而且在不久的将来，偏远地区的全球覆盖根本不可行。我们认为，解决方案是使用物理海洋学社区使用的海洋漂移器和浮子的成熟技术，并在这些漂移器上安装小型，低功耗，廉价的磁力计传感器，以覆盖目前采样不足的海洋区域。 更广泛的影响： 该提案中强调的主要更广泛的影响似乎主要是博士后的高级培训;并可能涉及暑期本科生。很明显，如果能够以运输时间的一小部分成本收集急需的地磁数据，将对地球科学界产生广泛的影响。该提案将资助一名女博士后研究员。所获得的数据将被许多其他研究人员使用，并在整个构造学界产生广泛的影响。

The PI's request funding to build an inexpensive magnetic drifter that works well for a typical, hypothesis-driven NSF project that studies a specific region. They envision a mode of data collection where investigators release a flotilla of inexpensive surface drifters upstream of an area they wish to study with magnetic field data. The drifters pass over the study site, collecting the desired data. These relatively, small, low power and inexpensive magnetic sensors can be obtained and combined or integrated with the circuitry within the drifter. Because the drifter moves slowly, the magnetometer can be set up to read the geomagnetic field infrequently keeping the data rate low.Magnetic field data from the oceans have been critical for understanding the origin, evolution and structure of the ocean basins. The marine magnetic stripe anomalies not only document Earth?s magnetic field polarity reversals but also form the basis for the Geomagnetic Polarity Timescale and are used to reconstruct the history of the ocean basins. These anomalies are best resolved by sea surface magnetic measurements. Satellite magnetic measurements, while global in extent, lack the lateral resolution to resolve these magnetic stripe anomalies in detail. While we have a working knowledge of most of the ocean basins there are areas, such as the southern ocean, that have only sparse shiptrack coverage. In a recent global compilation for the World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map (WDMAM, Purucker, 2007) the available data was so sparse that a model of magnetic anomalies was used to help interpolate data. Shiptime is expensive and global coverage in remote areas is simply not feasible in the near future. The solution we believe is to use the proven technology of ocean drifters and floats used by the physical oceanographic community and mount small, low power, inexpensive magnetometer sensors to these drifters to cover areas of the ocean that are undersampled at present. Broader Impacts: The main broader impact emphasized in the proposal seems mainly the advanced training of a post-doc; and potentially involving a summer undergraduate student. Clearly the ability to collect much-needed geomagnetic data at a fraction of the cost of ship time would have broad impacts in the geosciences community. The proposal will support a female postdoctoral fellow. Data obtained will be used by many other researchers and have a broad impact throughout the tectonics community.