Development and deployment of a swarm of mini-floats for studying coastal physical and biological dynamics

“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。“PI要求提供资金，以开发下一代微型浮子，用于现场测量海流和环境变量（荧光、温度、PAR）。这些微型浮标的主要目标是以高时间分辨率（分钟）和数十米的空间分辨率对海洋过程进行采样。为了实现这一目标，PI建议开发，制造，测试和部署空间地理参考和时间同步的小型浮动群。该计划通过设计一种新的浮力控制机制来促进，该机制将允许当前的自主水下探索者（AUE）车辆和一种更新的，更小的，1升大小的MINI-AUE车辆自主剖面，然后浮出水面建立卫星通信。为了测试这一发展，PI将在一个科学计划中使用这些车辆来量化沿海海洋中的亚浮游幼虫的轨迹，并研究非线性内波中中性浮力和游泳浮游生物的平流和斑块形成。在该项目结束时，PI希望展示这些微型浮子在海洋研究中的实用性，并为未来的工作建立一个小型的此类车辆车队。 更广泛的影响：本提案有一个广泛的影响部分。除了开发一种工具，将改变沿海的物理动力学和浮游生物（扩散，积累等）的研究，它涉及一个重要的外联组成部分，涉及初中和高中学生。学生们将建造一个漂浮物并跟踪它。这是一种可能激发年轻人追求科学，特别是海洋学/工程学的活动。一名博士后学者也将在这个项目上获得资助，他将在尖端实验室获得宝贵的工程/海洋学经验。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."The PIs request funding to develop the next generation of mini-floats for in situ measurement of currents and environmental variables (fluorescence, temperature, PAR). The principal objective of these mini-floats is to sample oceanic processes at high temporal resolution (minutes) with concurrent spatial resolution of 10's of meters. To accomplish this goal the PIs propose to develop, fabricate, test, and deploy swarms of mini-floats that are spatially geo-referenced and temporally synchronized. The plan is facilitated by the design of a new buoyancy control mechanism that will permit the current Autonomous Underwater Explorer (AUE) vehicles and a newer, smaller, 1 liter sized MINI-AUE vehicle to autonomously profile and then surface to establish satellite communication. To test the development, the PIs will use the vehicles in a scientific program to quantify trajectories of meroplanktonic larvae in the coastal ocean, and investigate advection and patch formation of neutrally buoyant and swimming plankton in nonlinear internal waves. At the conclusion of the project, the PIs hope to demonstrate the utility of these mini floats in ocean research and also have a small fleet of such vehicles for future work. Broader Impacts:This proposal has an extensive broader impact component. Beyond developing a tool that will transform coastal studies of physical dynamics and plankton (dispersal, accumulation etc') it involves an important outreach component involving middle and high school students. The students will get to build a float and track it. This is the type of activities that are likely to excite youth to pursue science in general and oceanography/engineering in particular. A post-doctoral scholar will also be funded on this project who will gain valuable engineering/oceanographic experience within a cutting edge lab.