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

1144优先项目（Schwerpunktprogramm或“SPP”1144）的标题为“从地幔到海洋：扩展轴上的能量、物质和生命周期”，其目的是对大西洋洋中扩展系统进行多学科、多段尺度的研究（见www.deridge.de）。这类系统的大部分工作需要在新形成的海洋地壳和上覆的水团之间的界面上进行（实际上是岩石圈/水圈边界）。正是在这个界面上集中了许多生物、构造和矿物学特征，这些特征使扩展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。从水面舰艇上研究这种动态界面有几个主要缺点：-由于距离被研究对象很远，舰载地球物理系统（带状声纳、地震、磁力等）的分辨率较低。-为海洋学、化学或生物目的从水面船只（例如CTD）的电缆上卸下的设备的运输时间较长。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。-可操作性差，转弯速度慢，缺乏底部跟踪能力的深拖曳作业，旨在使传感器更接近海底。这使得深拖曳部署在许多山脊轴无效和/或危险的设备。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的系统，能够在光栅上反复获取大多数类型的海底地球物理数据（测深、磁力、重力等），并且能够绘制水柱中的梯度（成分、物理、化学）。这可以通过以下三种选择之一来实现：载人潜水器、遥控潜水器（ROV）或自主潜水器（AUV）。被占用的潜水器所涉及的后勤和成本是令人生畏的。使用ROV，虽然选择精确、控制良好的采样方法，但对于栅格式穿越来说，这是一种不太理想的资源利用方式——它需要一艘船、飞行员、导航员等来跟随自动驾驶仪也可以导航的路线。ROV的脐带系绳也可能在粗糙和热液活跃的地形中构成主要的车辆安全隐患。对于这种自动化、网格式（但也有梯度跟踪）的工作，以及需要考虑缆绳堵塞的工作，AUV是唯一适合的。我们在这里提议购买一艘AUV，最初用于schwerpunkt1144计划的巡航和其他热液扩展轴研究，但与此同时，整个德国海洋科学界也将长期使用这艘AUV。这里提出的AUV的基本配置包括车辆，带水深测量，侧扫描和穿透沉积物声纳，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。假设用户将为这个基本包购买或调整专门的传感器，以满足他们的特定需求，部分资金来自SPP1144。AUV将由位于基尔的莱布尼茨研究所（leibniz - institut fr Meereswissenschaften）的新技术和物流中心提供支持。莱布尼茨研究所已承诺在空间和人员上维持该飞行器的运行状态。

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.