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

PI要求资助建造一个廉价的磁漂移器，它可以很好地用于一个典型的，假设驱动的NSF项目，研究一个特定的区域。他们设想了一种数据收集模式，研究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水面漂流船。漂流者经过研究地点，收集所需的数据。这些相对较小、低功耗和廉价的磁传感器可以获得，并与漂移器内的电路组合或集成。由于漂移器移动缓慢，磁力计可以设置为不频繁地读取地磁场，保持低数据速率。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？地球磁场极性反转，但也构成了地磁极性时间标度的基础，并用于重建海洋盆地的历史。这些异常最好通过海面磁测量来解决。卫星磁测量虽然在全球范围内，但缺乏横向分辨率来详细解决这些磁条异常。虽然我们对大多数海洋盆地都有一定的了解，但有些地区，如南大洋，只有稀疏的船舶轨迹覆盖。在最近的世界数字磁异常图（wdam, Purucker, 2007）的全球汇编中，可用的数据非常稀疏，因此使用了磁异常模型来帮助插值数据。运输时间昂贵，偏远地区的全球覆盖在不久的将来根本不可行。我们认为，解决办法是使用海洋物理学界使用的海洋漂浮器和漂浮器的成熟技术，并在这些漂浮器上安装小型、低功率、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：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；还可能涉及到一名暑期本科生。很明显，以船舶时间的一小部分成本收集急需的地磁数据的能力将对地球科学界产生广泛的影响。该提案将支持一名女性博士后。获得的数据将被许多其他研究人员使用，并在整个构造界产生广泛的影响。

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.