An "Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)" for sPP 1144 and German marine science

优先计划1144(SchwerpenktProgramm或“SPP”1144)的标题为“从地幔到海洋：扩散轴线上的能量、物质和生命周期”，其目的是对大西洋中洋扩散系统进行多学科、多部分规模的研究(见www.deridge.de)。关于这类系统的许多工作需要在新形成的洋壳和上覆水团(实际上是岩石圈/水圈边界)之间的界面上进行。正是在这个界面上，许多生物、构造和矿物学特征集中在一起，这些特征使扩张轴系统如此独特和重要。这里发生的过程发生在小范围内，产生局部效应，变化迅速-界面是高度动态的。从水面舰船上研究这种动态界面有几个主要缺点：-舰载地球物理系统(条带声纳、地震学、磁学等)分辨率低。因为它们离被研究对象的距离很远。-用于海洋、化学或生物目的的设备从水面船只(例如CTD)的电缆上降低的较长的运输时间。这使得成像、采样和分析(Eh、CH4、H2等)既麻烦又耗时，在高动态系统中存在严重缺陷。-旨在使传感器更接近海底的深海拖曳作业的机动性差、转弯速度慢和缺乏海底跟随能力。这使得在许多山脊轴线上进行深度拖曳部署无效和/或对设备造成危险。为了解决这些重大问题，需要一个能够在海底附近存在相当长时间、能够获得大多数类型的海底地球物理数据(水深、磁力、重力等)的系统。在栅格上重复，还能够绘制水柱中的梯度(成分、物理、化学)。这可以通过三种选择之一实现--占位潜水器、遥控潜水器(ROV)或自动潜水器(AUV)。被占领的潜水器所涉及的后勤和成本是令人敬畏的。ROV的使用虽然是精确、控制良好的采样的选择方法，但对于光栅式导线来说，它并不是对资源的最佳利用-它将船只、飞行员、导航员等捆绑在一起，以遵循自动驾驶也可以导航的路线。ROV的脐带系绳在崎岖和水热活跃的地形中也可能构成重大的车辆安全隐患。它适用于这种自动化、栅格式(但也有梯度跟随)的工作，以及考虑到系绳卡住的工作，因此AUV是唯一合适的。我们在此建议购买一艘AUV，最初用于Schwerpenkt计划1144内的巡航和其他热液扩散轴研究，但长期和平行于此供整个德国海洋科学界使用。这里提出的AUV的基本结构是由车辆、小水线面测深、侧扫和穿沙声纳、光学后向散射传感器、导航单元、通信设备以及在海上运输、部署、服务和维护车辆的设施组成。假设用户将购买或改装这种基本套餐的专门传感器，以满足他们的特定需求，部分资金来自SPP1144。AUV将在基尔的Leibniz-Innstitut für Meereswienschaften获得新的技术和物流支持。莱布尼茨研究所已经承诺在空间和人员上保持这辆车的运行状态。

The aim of the Priority Program 1144 (Schwerpunktprogramm or "SPP" 1144) with the title "From mantle to ocean: Energy-, material-, and life-cycles at spreading axes" is to carry out a multi-disciplinary, multi-segment scale study of the mid-ocean spreading system in the Atlantic (see www.deridge.de). Much of the work on such systems needs to be carried out at the interface between the newly-created oceanic crust and the overlying water masses (effectively the lithosphere/hydrosphere boundary). It is at this interface that many of the biological, tectonic and mineralogical features which make the spreading axis systems so unique and important are concentrated. The processes occurring here happen at small scales, produce localised effects and vary rapidly – the interface is highly dynamic. Studying this dynamic interface from a surface ship has several major disadvantages: - The low resolution of ship-mounted geophysical systems (swath sonar, seismics, magnetics etc.) due to their large distance from the object being studied. - The long transit times for equipment lowered for oceanographic, chemical or biological purposes on cables from a surface vessel (e.g. CTD). This makes imaging, sampling and analysing (Eh, CH4, H2 etc) both cumbersome and timeconsuming, severe drawbacks in a highly dynamic system. - The poor manoeuvrability, slow turning speed and lack of bottom-following ability of deep-towed operations aimed at bringing sensors closer to the seafloor. This makes deep-towed deployments in many ridge axes ineffective and/or hazardous to the equipment. To address these significant problems, a system is needed which is capable of being present for significant amounts of time close to the seafloor, is capable of acquiring most types of geophysical seafloor data (bathymetry, magnetics, gravity etc.) repeatedly on a raster and also has the ability to map gradients (compositional, physical, chemical) in the water column. This can be achieved by one of three options - an occupied submersible, a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) or an autonomous vehicle (AUV). The logistics and costs involved in occupied submersibles are formidable. The use of a ROV, whilst the method of choice for precise, well controlled sampling, is a less than optimal use of resources for raster-type traverses - it ties up a ship, pilot, navigator etc. to follow a course which an autopilot could also navigate. The umbilical tether of an ROV can also present a major vehicle safety hazard in rough and hydrothermally-active terrains. It is for such automated, grid-like (but also gradient-following) work and for work in which tether-snagging is a concern that an AUV is uniquely suitable. We propose here to acquire, initially for use on cruises within the Schwerpunktprogramm 1144 and for other hydrothermal, spreading-axis studies, but long-term and in parallel to this for use by the entire German marine science community, an AUV. The AUV proposed here is the basic configuration consisting of vehicle, swath bathymetric, sidescan and sediment-penetrating sonars, optical backscatter sensor, navigation units, communications equipment and the facilities to transport, deploy, service and maintain the vehicle when at sea. It is assumed that users will acquire or adapt specialised sensors for this basic package to suit their particular needs, in part through funds from SPP1144. The AUV will be supported the new Technik- und Logistikzentrum at the Leibniz-lnstitut für Meereswissenschaften in Kiel. The Leibniz-Institut has committed both space and personell to maintain this vehicle in an operational status.