FAME: Future of Advanced Metrology for Environmental fluid dynamics

自然流动塑造了我们的环境。实际上，地球上的每一个部分都可以放在流体动力学形成的跨学科过程的背景下或界面上，从：地幔对流，驱动构造板块运动和地质灾害；驱动洋流和混合、控制海洋生物的能源；对陆地生命至关重要的水、营养物质和污染物在陆地系统中的扩散；面对气候变化带来的极端天气风险。尽管现有的数值模型可以捕捉到这些流动的许多方面，但它们从根本上受到自然环境中存在的尺度范围的复杂性的限制。因此，缺乏对自然世界的理解往往源于缺乏环境流动的经验数据。经验数据是激发对流体动力学和自然环境的新理解的关键。数据通常来自研究基本过程的受控实验。然而，为了产生影响，需要将这些过程置于现实环境中。三维和时间数据是理解自然界固有的复杂流动的关键。然而，尽管这些数据在数值模型中很常见，但在当前的实证研究中却很少见。我们量化环境流动动态的能力在许多方面比数值模型更为有限。直到现在，最近的技术进步才使我们有能力解决长期存在的环境流动经验数据的局限性。环境流体动力学先进计量的未来（FAME）项目对研究能力做出了世界领先的贡献，通过：1)推进全球独特的收集环境流动完整经验数据集的能力；2)将实验流体动力学扩展到现实世界。基于新型体积流量测量的一套新型设备的协同集成，实现了这些目标，并支持了自然环境科学的逐步变化。在学术界和工业界的广泛支持下，赫尔大学的顶尖专家将整合一套新设备，包括：先进的光学流量测量设备，可以解开构成自然流动的不同流体、颗粒和化学成分的动力学；水下光学测量设备，将以前只能在实验室条件下使用的流体解析能力转化为现实世界的尺度；以及自然浑浊环境流的声学成像，光学技术无法使用。通过集成这套设备，FAME提供了全球独特的能力，可以解决各种环境和规模的流动，为研究关键的社会挑战提供所需的新数据。通过访问这两种设备，以及将生成的独特数据集，FAME将激励下一代社区对自然环境的研究。

Natural flows shape our environment. Virtually every part of the planet can be put in the context, or at the interface, of transdisciplinary processes shaped by fluid dynamics, from: mantle convection, driving tectonic plate movement and geohazards; energy sources driving ocean currents and mixing, controlling marine life; the dispersal of water, nutrients and pollutants through terrestrial systems, critical to life on land; to the risks from extreme weather, in a changing climate. Although, numerical models exist that capture many aspects of these flows, they are fundamentally limited by the complexity, and critically, the range of scales present in the natural environment. Thus, lack of understanding of the natural world often stems from lack of empirical data of environmental flows. Empirical data are key to motivate new understanding of fluid dynamics and thus the natural environment. Data are often derived from controlled experiments, studying fundamental processes. Yet, to deliver impact, these processes need to be placed in real-world context. Three-dimensional, and temporal, data are key to understand complex flows inherent to nature. Yet whilst common in numerical models, such data are rare in current empirical research. Our capability to quantify the dynamics of environmental flows is in many respects more limited than numerical models.Only now has recent advances in technology placed the ability to address long-standing limitations of empirical data of environmental flows within our grasp. The Future of Advanced Metrology for Environmental fluid dynamics (FAME) project makes a world-leading contribution to research capability, by: 1) advancing globally unique capacity to collect complete empirical datasets of environmental flows; 2) scaling experimental fluid dynamics to the real-world. Synergistic integration of a suite of novel equipment, based on novel volumetric flow measurement, addresses these goals and supports step-change advances across natural environmental science.Leading experts at Hull, extensively supported by academia and industry, will integrate the suite of new equipment, including: Advanced optical flow measurement equipment that can disentangle the dynamics of the different fluid, particulate and chemical components that comprise natural flows; Submersible optical measurement equipment that translates capability to resolve flows, previously only available in laboratory conditions, to real-world scales; and Acoustic imaging of naturally cloudy environmental flows, where optical techniques cannot be used. Through integration of this suite of equipment, FAME affords globally unique capability to resolve flows across a range of environments and scales, providing new data needed for research into key societal challenges. By enabling access to both equipment, and critically the unique datasets that will be generated, FAME will motivate the next generation of community research into the natural environment.