Observing hydrocarbon particles and multiphase flows in submarine seeps - an integrated imaging system

国际和平研究所要求提供资金，以开发一种综合成像系统，同时测量海底渗漏气泡/水滴的特征和周围海水的“结构”。这项工作将产生气泡通量和扩散的模型，对在许多不同领域工作的研究人员有用。这将有助于更好地了解天然海洋碳氢化合物渗漏对水圈和大气的影响，迫切需要评估其重要性和贡献，特别是在全球变暖和我们不断变化的环境也在公开辩论的今天。这项工作提供了结构良好的教育方案和清晰的评估方法。通过拟议项目开发的仪器在促进国际和跨学科合作方面具有很大潜力，特别是如果在OOI这样的海洋电缆观测站阵列中实施的话。考虑到基本的挑战和了解自然渗流及其搅动水流之间相互作用的需要，这项提议致力于开发一种创新的成像系统，该系统将几乎同时测量水滴/气泡的大小、气泡表面的外观、形态行为、上升速度和流量、水的三维速度、湍流统计、气泡尾迹中的漩涡以及气泡诱导混合的特征长度和时间尺度。这一新仪器将克服目前研究海底渗漏的研究界可用的成像系统中的一些关键缺陷。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The PI requests funding to develop an integrated imaging system that would concurrently measure the characteristics of submarine seep bubbles/drops and the “structure” of the surrounding ocean water. This work would produce models for bubble fluxes and dispersal that can be useful to researchers working in many different domains. It would contribute to a better understanding of the influence of natural marine hydrocarbon seepage to the hydrosphere and atmosphere is urgently needed to evaluate its importance and contribution, especially these days when global warming and our changing environment is also highly debated in public. This work provides well-structured educational programs with clear methods of assessment. The instrument to be developed through the proposed project has a high potential to foster international and interdisciplinary collaboration, especially if implemented in a marine cabled observatory array like OOI. Given the fundamental challenges and the need of understanding the interaction between the natural seep and its agitated water flow, this proposal is dedicated to developing an innovative imaging system that would near-simultaneously measures the size of drops/bubbles, appearance of the bubble surface, morphological behavior, rise velocity, and discharge, and the three-dimensional velocity of water, turbulent statistics, vortices in the bubble wake, and the characteristics length and time scales in bubble-induced mixing. This new instrument would overcome some key deficiencies in imaging systems currently available to the research community studying submarine seeps.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.