Development and Field Testing of a Lift-Assisted Moored Profiler: LAMP

提升辅助系泊剖面仪的开发和现场测试：LAMP

• 批准号: 1634736
• 负责人: John Toole
• 金额: $ 74.77万
• 依托单位: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-10-01 至 2021-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1634736&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Field; Testing; Lift; Assisted

Ocean water properties (such as temperature and salinity) as well as ocean currents vary with depth and time. Traditionally, long-term ocean observations of a year duration or longer have been made using bottom-anchored moorings that supported an array of instruments distributed along the mooring line and held upright by a surface buoy or subsurface floats. Finite resources usually limit the number of depth levels that can be sampled using such moorings. The WHOI Moored Profiler (MP) instrument was developed 20 years ago (in part with National Science Foundation support) to sample water properties over (near) full ocean depth at high-vertical resolution for time periods of a year or longer. What emerged from the initial engineering work was a streamlined vehicle that employed a traction drive wheel system to propel itself vertically along a conventional subsurface mooring cable of arbitrary length. The prototype profiling vehicle was fitted with a suite of sensors to sample the water properties and currents at sub-1-meter vertical resolution and store the data onboard until recovery. The MP technology was subsequently licensed to McLane Research Laboratories, Inc. for commercial production; those operational instruments (McLane Moored Profilers, MMPs) are presently in use by various groups in support of scientific investigations into ocean processes ranging from basin scale variability to eddies to internal waves, including by the Ocean Observatory Initiative program. While able to return unique and valuable observations, the MMP has only modest endurance (something less than 1000 km of total vertical profiling per deployment) and an uneven track record for profiling reliability (i.e., regular ability to fully span its programmed sampling depth range, particularly at times of strong incident ocean flow). Building on the principal investigators extensive past experience, this project will develop a new moored, profiling instrument that will extract hydrodynamic lift from incident ocean currents to assist with vertical profiling and employ a more capable instrument controller to simplify sensor integration and enhance command and control functionality. A prototype Lift-Assisted Moored Profiler (LAMP) instrument will be designed, constructed and field tested during a 6-month ocean trial. The researchers will subsequently analyze the resulting data and report the results in a peer-reviewed article. It is expected that the new instrument design will attract a manufacturer interested in producing the device under license for broad community use. Engineering student summer interns will be recruited to assist in the design, testing and evaluation of the device. In addition, the research program represents the first opportunity for a young engineer to serve as a co-principal investigator.The acquisition expense of an oceanographic instrument is only part of the cost/benefit equation. While the outlay for a piece of reusable equipment may be amortized over the number of successful deployments of that device, from a scientific standpoint, a failed or only partially successful deployment means loss of information that likely can never be reacquired. It is therefore imperative that oceanographic instruments be designed to be as robust and reliable as is practical. The goal of this project is to improve on the present Moored Profiler design to enhance reliability and operability and thus create an instrument better able to support the oceanographic research programs envisioned for the next decade(s). The technical goals of the project are to (1) improve profiling reliability, particularly in stronger flows, (2) increase profiling endurance relative to presently-available technology, and (3) design and implement an advanced electronics system for the instrument. The development program will have two major thrusts: electronic (design and implement a more capable instrument controller to streamline sensor interfacing, improve the operator interface, enhance the flexibility of the data logging, and collect more and better diagnostics of system performance) and mechanical (design and build a streamlined, low-drag vehicle able to orient relative to the three-dimensional incident flow and extract lift from the ocean currents to assist the drive motor with vertical profiling). The controller will consist of a low-power microprocessor mated with a Linux processor; real-time functionality will be governed by the microprocessor while the Linux subsystem will be activated for higher level processing such as data compression. Lift will derive from wings extending laterally from the vehicle body, with the angle of attack to the incident flow set by an adjustable tail fin (aileron). Preliminary calculations for a wing of total area .387 m2 appears capable of producing a lift force of 21 N for a relative flow of 42 cm/s during profiling (4 times the along-wire drag typically experienced by the McLane Moored Profiler in these conditions). Full scale tests will determine if this conceptual design can achieve significantly greater endurance, or if additional battery capacity will be needed. The program timeline is built around a planned, 6-month trial deployment (spring to fall, 2018) of the LAMP southeast of Woods Hole at 38° N, 68° 40' W in 4100 m water depth. This site periodically experiences upper ocean currents well in excess of 1 m/s associated with northward meanders of the Gulf Stream and associated Warm Core Rings. This test will present significant challenges to the LAMP, and hopefully demonstrate its viability for sustained ocean observation in a wide variety of environments.

海水性质(如温度和盐度)以及洋流随深度和时间而变化。传统上，持续一年或更长时间的长期海洋观测是使用底部锚定的系泊设备进行的，这种系泊设备支持沿系泊线分布的一系列仪器，并由表面浮标或地下浮标竖直保持。有限的资源通常会限制使用这种系泊设备进行采样的深度级别的数量。WHOI系泊剖面仪(MP)仪器是20年前开发的(部分是在国家科学基金会的支持下)，用于在一年或更长时间内以高垂直分辨率采样(接近)全海洋深度的水性质。最初的工程工作产生了一种流线型的车辆，它采用了牵引驱动轮系统，沿着传统的任意长度的地下系泊缆索垂直推进。原型剖面车配备了一套传感器，以低于1米的垂直分辨率采样水的性质和水流，并将数据存储在船上，直到恢复。MP技术随后被许可给McLane研究实验室公司用于商业生产；这些操作仪器(McLane系泊剖面仪，MMPs)目前正被各种团体使用，以支持对从盆地尺度变化到涡流到内波等海洋过程的科学调查，包括海洋观测站倡议计划。虽然能够返回独特和有价值的观测结果，但该系统的耐力有限(每次部署的垂直剖面总长度不到1000公里)，剖面可靠性方面的记录参差不齐(即，定期完全跨越其程序采样深度范围的能力，特别是在强入射洋流时)。在主要调查人员过去丰富经验的基础上，该项目将开发一种新的系泊剖面仪器，该仪器将从入射洋流中提取流体动力升力，以协助垂直剖面，并采用功能更强大的仪器控制器，以简化传感器集成并增强指挥和控制功能。在为期6个月的海洋试验期间，将设计、建造和现场测试升降机辅助系泊剖面仪(LAMP)的原型。研究人员随后将分析结果数据，并在一篇同行评议的文章中报告结果。预计新的仪器设计将吸引有兴趣在许可下生产该设备的制造商，供广泛的社区使用。工科学生暑期实习生将被招募来协助该设备的设计、测试和评估。此外，该研究计划是年轻工程师第一次有机会担任联合首席研究员。购买海洋仪器的费用只是成本/收益方程式的一部分。虽然一件可重复使用的设备的费用可能会按该设备的成功部署次数摊销，但从科学的角度来看，失败或仅部分成功的部署意味着信息的损失，这些信息可能永远无法重新获得。因此，当务之急是将海洋仪器设计得既实用又坚固可靠。该项目的目标是改进目前的系泊剖面仪设计，以提高可靠性和可操作性，从而创建一种能够更好地支持下一个十年设想的海洋研究计划的仪器(S)。该项目的技术目标是(1)提高剖面可靠性，特别是在更强的流动中，(2)相对于现有技术提高剖面耐久性，以及(3)为该仪器设计和实施先进的电子系统。开发计划将有两个主要推动力：电子(设计和实现更强大的仪器控制器，以简化传感器接口，改进操作员界面，增强数据记录的灵活性，并收集更多和更好的系统性能诊断信息)和机械(设计和制造一种流线型、低阻力车辆，能够相对于三维事件流定向，并从洋流中提取升力，以帮助驱动电机进行垂直剖面分析)。控制器将由一个与Linux处理器配对的低功率微处理器组成；实时功能将由微处理器管理，而Linux子系统将被激活以进行更高级别的处理，如数据压缩。升力将来自从车身横向延伸的机翼，攻角由可调节的尾翼(副翼)设置。对总面积为.387m2的机翼进行初步计算，在剖面图过程中，对于42厘米/S的相对流量，似乎能够产生21N的升力(是McLane系泊剖面仪在这些条件下通常所经历的沿绳阻力的4倍)。全尺寸测试将确定这种概念设计是否可以实现更大的耐力，或者是否需要额外的电池容量。该计划的时间表围绕伍兹霍尔东南部、北纬38°、西经68°40‘、水深4100米的灯具进行为期6个月的试验部署(2018年春季至秋季)。这个地点周期性地经历与墨西哥湾流和相关的暖核环向北蜿蜒的上层洋流有关的1米/S以上的洋流。这项测试将对LAMP提出重大挑战，并有望证明其在各种环境中进行持续海洋观测的可行性。