Development and Field Testing of a Lift-Assisted Moored Profiler: LAMP

海水的性质（如温度和盐度）以及洋流随深度和时间而变化。 传统上，一年或更长时间的长期海洋观测是使用底锚系泊系统进行的，该系统支撑着一系列仪器，这些仪器沿着系泊缆分布，并由水面浮标或水下浮子保持直立。 有限的资源通常限制了使用这种系泊装置可以采样的深度水平的数量。 WHOI系泊剖面仪（MP）是20年前开发的（部分得到了国家科学基金会的支持），用于在一年或更长的时间内以高垂直分辨率对（接近）整个海洋深度的水特性进行采样。从最初的工程工作中产生的是一种流线型的车辆，该车辆采用牵引驱动轮系统，沿任意长度的传统水下系泊缆沿着垂直推进。 原型剖面探测器配备了一套传感器，以低于1米的垂直分辨率对水的性质和水流进行采样，并将数据存储在船上，直到恢复。MP技术随后被许可给McLane Research Laboratories，Inc.。用于商业生产;这些操作仪器（麦克莱恩系泊剖面仪，MMP）目前被各种团体使用，以支持对海洋过程的科学调查，范围从盆地尺度变化到漩涡到内波，包括海洋观测倡议计划。虽然能够返回独特和有价值的观测结果，但MMP只有适度的耐久性（每次部署的总垂直剖面小于1000公里）和剖面可靠性的不均匀记录（即，定期能够完全跨越其编程的采样深度范围，特别是在强入射洋流的时候）。在主要调查人员过去丰富经验的基础上，该项目将开发一种新的系泊剖面仪，该仪器将从入射洋流中提取水动力升力，以协助垂直剖面，并采用更强大的仪器控制器，以简化传感器集成并增强指挥和控制功能。 在为期6个月的海洋试验期间，将设计、建造和现场测试一个原型升力辅助系泊剖面仪（LAMP）。 研究人员随后将分析所得数据，并在同行评议的文章中报告结果。 预计新的仪器设计将吸引有兴趣在许可证下生产该器械以供广泛社区使用的制造商。工程系学生暑期实习生将被招募，以协助设计，测试和评估的设备。此外，该研究计划是一个年轻的工程师担任共同首席研究员的第一次机会。海洋仪器的购置费用只是成本/效益等式的一部分。虽然一件可重复使用设备的费用可以分摊到该设备的成功部署次数中，但从科学的角度来看，失败或仅部分成功的部署意味着可能永远无法重新获取的信息的损失。因此，必须将海洋学仪器设计得既实用又坚固可靠。该项目的目标是改进目前的系泊剖面仪设计，以提高可靠性和可操作性，从而创造一种能够更好地支持未来十年设想的海洋学研究计划的仪器。 该项目的技术目标是：（1）提高剖面测量的可靠性，特别是在更强的流动中;（2）相对于现有技术提高剖面测量的耐久性;（3）为仪器设计和实施先进的电子系统。 该发展计划将有两个主要目标：电子（设计和实施更有能力的仪器控制器，以简化传感器接口，改进操作员界面，增强数据记录的灵活性，并收集更多更好的系统性能诊断）和机械（设计和建造一个流线型，能够相对于三维入射流定向并从洋流提取升力以辅助驱动马达进行垂直剖面的低阻力航行器）。 控制器将由一个与Linux处理器配合的低功耗微处理器组成;实时功能将由微处理器管理，而Linux子系统将被激活以进行更高级别的处理，例如数据压缩。 升力将来自于从机身横向延伸的机翼，迎角由可调节的尾翼（副翼）设定。 对总面积为0.387 m2的机翼的初步计算表明，在剖面测量过程中，对于42 cm/s的相对气流，机翼能够产生21 N的升力（4倍于McLane系泊剖面仪在这些条件下通常经受的顺丝阻力）。 全尺寸测试将确定这种概念设计是否可以实现更大的续航能力，或者是否需要额外的电池容量。 该计划的时间轴是围绕一个计划的，为期6个月的试验部署（春季至秋季，2018年）的LAMP东南部的伍兹霍尔在38° N，68° 40' W在4100米水深。该站点定期经历与墨西哥湾流和相关的暖芯环向北蜿蜒有关的超过1米/秒的上层洋流。 这项测试将对LAMP提出重大挑战，并有望证明其在各种环境中持续进行海洋观测的可行性。

Ocean water properties (such as temperature and salinity) as well as ocean currents vary with depth and time. Traditionally, long-term ocean observations of a year duration or longer have been made using bottom-anchored moorings that supported an array of instruments distributed along the mooring line and held upright by a surface buoy or subsurface floats. Finite resources usually limit the number of depth levels that can be sampled using such moorings. The WHOI Moored Profiler (MP) instrument was developed 20 years ago (in part with National Science Foundation support) to sample water properties over (near) full ocean depth at high-vertical resolution for time periods of a year or longer. What emerged from the initial engineering work was a streamlined vehicle that employed a traction drive wheel system to propel itself vertically along a conventional subsurface mooring cable of arbitrary length. The prototype profiling vehicle was fitted with a suite of sensors to sample the water properties and currents at sub-1-meter vertical resolution and store the data onboard until recovery. The MP technology was subsequently licensed to McLane Research Laboratories, Inc. for commercial production; those operational instruments (McLane Moored Profilers, MMPs) are presently in use by various groups in support of scientific investigations into ocean processes ranging from basin scale variability to eddies to internal waves, including by the Ocean Observatory Initiative program. While able to return unique and valuable observations, the MMP has only modest endurance (something less than 1000 km of total vertical profiling per deployment) and an uneven track record for profiling reliability (i.e., regular ability to fully span its programmed sampling depth range, particularly at times of strong incident ocean flow). Building on the principal investigators extensive past experience, this project will develop a new moored, profiling instrument that will extract hydrodynamic lift from incident ocean currents to assist with vertical profiling and employ a more capable instrument controller to simplify sensor integration and enhance command and control functionality. A prototype Lift-Assisted Moored Profiler (LAMP) instrument will be designed, constructed and field tested during a 6-month ocean trial. The researchers will subsequently analyze the resulting data and report the results in a peer-reviewed article. It is expected that the new instrument design will attract a manufacturer interested in producing the device under license for broad community use. Engineering student summer interns will be recruited to assist in the design, testing and evaluation of the device. In addition, the research program represents the first opportunity for a young engineer to serve as a co-principal investigator.The acquisition expense of an oceanographic instrument is only part of the cost/benefit equation. While the outlay for a piece of reusable equipment may be amortized over the number of successful deployments of that device, from a scientific standpoint, a failed or only partially successful deployment means loss of information that likely can never be reacquired. It is therefore imperative that oceanographic instruments be designed to be as robust and reliable as is practical. The goal of this project is to improve on the present Moored Profiler design to enhance reliability and operability and thus create an instrument better able to support the oceanographic research programs envisioned for the next decade(s). The technical goals of the project are to (1) improve profiling reliability, particularly in stronger flows, (2) increase profiling endurance relative to presently-available technology, and (3) design and implement an advanced electronics system for the instrument. The development program will have two major thrusts: electronic (design and implement a more capable instrument controller to streamline sensor interfacing, improve the operator interface, enhance the flexibility of the data logging, and collect more and better diagnostics of system performance) and mechanical (design and build a streamlined, low-drag vehicle able to orient relative to the three-dimensional incident flow and extract lift from the ocean currents to assist the drive motor with vertical profiling). The controller will consist of a low-power microprocessor mated with a Linux processor; real-time functionality will be governed by the microprocessor while the Linux subsystem will be activated for higher level processing such as data compression. Lift will derive from wings extending laterally from the vehicle body, with the angle of attack to the incident flow set by an adjustable tail fin (aileron). Preliminary calculations for a wing of total area .387 m2 appears capable of producing a lift force of 21 N for a relative flow of 42 cm/s during profiling (4 times the along-wire drag typically experienced by the McLane Moored Profiler in these conditions). Full scale tests will determine if this conceptual design can achieve significantly greater endurance, or if additional battery capacity will be needed. The program timeline is built around a planned, 6-month trial deployment (spring to fall, 2018) of the LAMP southeast of Woods Hole at 38° N, 68° 40' W in 4100 m water depth. This site periodically experiences upper ocean currents well in excess of 1 m/s associated with northward meanders of the Gulf Stream and associated Warm Core Rings. This test will present significant challenges to the LAMP, and hopefully demonstrate its viability for sustained ocean observation in a wide variety of environments.