STTR Phase I: Bio-optical Sensor for the Direct Detection of Sinking Marine Particles

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。这个小企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是更深入地了解生物如何在海洋中吸收碳。重要的是要准确衡量海洋对自然碳的吸收，因为这会影响海洋和渔业的健康，以及未来刻意在海洋中封存碳以减缓气候变化的努力。这一目标将通过开发一种可广泛部署在海洋机器人上的低成本传感器来实现，这些机器人已经被用于测量海洋热量吸收等过程。该传感器将使用光来探测海洋中下沉的碎片。这些碎片是碳在海洋中自然隔离的主要方式。海洋中的分布式机器人平台允许在科考船无法到达的地点和季节进行观测。这类平台通常比与科考船相关的传感器成本更低。机器人平台传感器的开发和销售是增长领域，因为越来越多地依赖这些平台进行科学观测。该项目还可能加强学术和行业伙伴关系，并帮助培训未来的科学家和工程师进行仪器开发。人们迫切希望扩大对海洋生物碳泵过程的测量，以更好地了解气候变化，特别是从海洋表面沉淀出来的颗粒的碳通量。该项目将创建一种传感器，该传感器被设计为携带在全球分布的自主剖面浮标上。传感器/浮标可能有助于区分海洋中生物碳吸收的不同模式。该传感器将从根本上进行设计，以满足采样浮点的挑战，这些浮点具有严格的功耗、成本和数据质量控制要求。该传感器还将具有为测量下沉颗粒通量量身定做的特定光学和外壳几何特性。发展阶段将包括建议的传感器几何形状的光学建模，不同外壳几何形状的粒子收集效率的建模，模型粒子的实验室测试，以及向科学界传播结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is a stronger understanding of how living things absorb carbon in the ocean. It is important to have an accurate measure of the natural carbon uptake by the ocean because this affects ocean and fishery health, as well as future efforts to intentionally sequester carbon in the ocean to mitigate climate change. This goal will be achieved by developing a low-cost sensor that can be widely deployed on ocean robots, which are already being used to measure processes like ocean heat uptake. The sensor will use light to detect sinking debris in the ocean. This debris is a major way that carbon is naturally sequestered in the ocean. Distributed, robotic platforms in the ocean allow observations to be made in locations and seasons that are not accessible with research ships. Such platforms are generally lower cost than sensors associated with research ships. Development and sale of sensors for robotic platforms are areas of growth because of the increasing reliance on these platforms for scientific observations. This project may also enhance academic and industry partnerships and help to train upcoming scientists and engineers in instrument development.There is a significant desire to expand measurements of ocean biological carbon pump processes to better understand climate change, in particular the flux of carbon by particles settling out of the surface ocean. This project will create a sensor that is designed to be carried aboard globally distributed, autonomous profiling floats. The sensors/floats may help distinguish among the different modes of biological carbon uptake in the ocean. The sensor will be designed from the ground up to meet the challenges of sampling floats, which have stringent power consumption, cost, and data quality-control requirements. The sensor will also have specific optical and housing geometry characteristics tailored for measurement of sinking particle fluxes. The development stages will consist of optical modeling of proposed sensor geometries, modeling of particle collection efficiencies of different housing geometries, laboratory testing of model particles, and dissemination of results to the scientific community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.