SALP: A Submerged Autonomous Launch Platform for Drifting Instrumentation

P.I.卫星跟踪的表面漂流物、声学跟踪的地下浮标以及不断增加的主动压载剖面浮标系列，提供了一种有效且相对廉价的手段，可在广泛的空间和时间尺度上描述海洋环境。许多沿海和蓝水过程研究需要（或将受益于）在数天至数年的时间内重复部署漂移仪器。在最好的情况下，依赖船舶和/或飞机进行串行仪器部署可能是昂贵的，后勤困难。在最坏的情况下，基于船舶的部署可能无法在偏远地区，不利的天气或季节性冰盖的地区，或应对突发事件，如严重的风暴。为了解决这一问题，本提案概述了一项努力，即开发和现场测试一种紧凑、低成本的系泊平台，该平台能够在较长的时间内发射任意混合的漂流仪器（例如，表面漂流器、RAFOS浮标、PALACE剖面浮标）。水下自主发射平台（SALP）部署在2000米深的标准海洋学系泊处，将使浮子和漂流器能够（a）根据用户定义的时间表按时间发射，（B）通过实时声学遥控发射，或（c）根据当地环境条件自适应发射。据信，SALP的发展将为海洋学界提供广泛的利益，促进在迅速变化的，地理上偏远的，或环境恶劣的地区进行密集和具有成本效益的海洋环流研究，并将使研究人员能够解决目前在财政或后勤上无法维持的困难的研究问题。作为自主海洋观测系统的一个组成部分，SALP将使调查人员能够在海上进行项目和维持互动，同时促进效率

P.I. FratantoniOCE-0136255Satellite-tracked surface drifters, acoustically tracked subsurface floats, and a growing family of actively ballasted profiling floats provide an effective and relatively inexpensive means of describing the ocean environment over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Many coastal and blue-water process studies require (or would benefit from) the repetitive deployment of drifting instrumentation over periods of days to years. At best, reliance on ships and/or aircraft for serial instrument deployment can be expensive and logistically difficult. At worst, ship-based deployments may be impossible in remote locations, areas of unfavorable weather or seasonal ice cover, or in response to episodic events such as severe storms. To address this problem this proposal outlines an effort to develop and field-test a compact, low-cost moored platform capable of launching an arbitrary mixture of drifting instruments (e.g. surface drifters, RAFOS floats, profiling PALACE floats) over an extended time period. The Submerged Autonomous Launch Platform (SALP), deployed at depths as great as 2000 m on a standard oceanographic mooring, will enable floats and drifters to be launched (a) by time according to a user- defined schedule, (b) by real-time acoustic remote-control, or (c) adaptively on the basis of local environmental conditions. It is believed that the development of SALP will provide broad benefit to the oceanographic community by facilitating intensive and cost-effective studies of ocean circulation in rapidly changing, geographically remote, or environmentally hostile regions, and will enable investigators to address difficult research problems that are presently financially or logistically untenable. As a component of an autonomous ocean observing system, SALP will allow investigators to project and maintain an interactive presence at sea while promoting the eff