MRI: Development of AUV Technologies for Long-Range Under-Ice Transects

该MRI奖授予来自WHOI和密歇根大学的研究人员和工程师，旨在组装一套仪器，以进一步研究和教育培训自主水下航行器（auv）导航和通信能力的实践和理论方面。应用的重点是鼓励相对便宜的auv在海冰、浮冰架和大型冰山环境下进行更常规的操作。这些研究被认为（例如IPCC第4次评估报告）是我们了解气候引起的冰冻圈变化的关键需求，以及这些变化可能对未来海平面上升、行星反照率和气候预测的其他方面产生的影响。我们目前对格陵兰和南极冰盖末端边缘的冰/海洋相互作用的了解有限，特别是缺乏对基础粗糙度、冰下水文和地形条件、冰盖和融水流场的时空变异性、海洋热场、盐度和洋流场等因素的直接和持续观测。调查人员将向公众和各自机构正在进行的K-12活动传达该方法及其实现进展的意识。成功的结果将直接关系到从事观测和模拟研究的极地和气候科学家。美国学术和海洋学机构中越来越多的小型auv为学生参与研究和开发项目提供了一个自然的焦点。

Abstract This MRI award to researchers and engineers from WHOI and University of Michigan seek to assemble a suite of instrumentation to further both research and educational training into the practical and theoretical aspects of the navigation and communication capabilities of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The application focus is to encourage a more routine operation of relatively inexpensive AUVs in under sea-ice, floating ice shelves and large iceberg environments. Such studies are recognized (e.g. IPCC AR4) as critical needs to our understanding of climate induced changes in the cryosphere, and the implications such changes may have for future sea level rise, planetary albedo, and other aspects of climate prediction. Our current limited understanding of ice/ocean interactions at the terminal margins of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are notably lacking in direct and sustained observation of factors such as basal roughness, subglacial hydrology and topographic conditions, temporal and spatial variability of ice sheet and meltwater flow fields, ocean thermal, salinity and current fields. Awareness of the approach and progress to its realization will be communicated by the investigators to the public and K-12 activities under ongoing programs at their respective institutions. Successful results will be of immediate interest to polar and climate scientists engaged in observation and modeling studies. The increasing number of small AUVs that exist in the US academic and oceanographic agencies provides a natural focus for student involvement in research and development projects.