Observational Technique Development – Float Technology Development
Lead PI: Stephen C. Riser, University of Washington
The partners are carrying out a two-year program to improve profiling float technology for programs such as Argo. Advancements include (1) building floats capable of profiling from a depth of 2000 m to the sea surface anywhere in the world ocean; (2) adding the capability of measuring dissolved oxygen to profiling floats; (3) adding the capability of inferring wind speed and rainfall using acoustic sensors on profiling floats; and (4) adding a high-bandwidth communications capability to profiling floats that employs the Iridium satellite system.
Number of Years: 2
Partners:
- University of Washington
- SeaBird Electronics
- Webb Research
FY 2003 PI Report
FY 2004 PI Report
Long-Term Surface Salinity Measurements
Lead PI: Dr. Raymond Schmitt, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
A new enclosed field conductivity cell will be developed and adapted for the long-term stable measurement of salinity from surface drifters. The device is a new electrode-type design due to Neil Brown. It will be made immune to biological fouling through the use of a closing mechanism and a slow-release bio-toxin. The release rate of the toxin into the enclosed cell will be tuned to the expected temperature range of deployment. In combination with a temperature probe, a low duty cycle, and simple on-board data processing, it should be possible to achieve salinity measurements stable to better than 0.05 over the two-year life of a surface drifter. This technology will be used to provide a real-time monitoring system for surface salinity around the globe. A sea surface salinity (SSS) monitoring system would be a significant new tool for understanding the role of the oceans in climate and should lead to improved long-range climate forecasts.
Partners:
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Epaint, Inc.
- Clearwater Instrumentation, Inc.
FY 2002 PI Report
FY 2003 PI Report
FY 2005 PI Report
Planning for a National Community Sediment Transport Model
Lead PI: Christopher R. Sherwood, US Geological Survey and W. Rockwell Geyer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Our ability to predict the transport and long-term fate of particles in the ocean is essential in addressing a variety of issues related to commerce, defense, and the quality of the marine environment. For example, remediation of contaminated sediments, siting of sewage outfalls, evaluation of past and future disposal sites, burial of mines or archeological artifacts, transport and fate of biological particles, and evaluation of the impacts of coastal development all require an understanding of the transport and fate of sediment under varying hydrodynamic, physical, and biological conditions. Numerical models can provide a framework within which to synthesize our understanding of sediment transport processes in complex systems. They are also useful as a test bed for emerging sediment-transport algorithms, and to provide realistic settings for biological and geochemical models. To fully realize the power of numerical modeling in coastal environments, sediment transport models need to be linked directly to hydrodynamic circulation models. Although researchers from academia and private industry are actively pursuing this goal, there is no community sediment transport model for the coastal oceanographic environment. Developing a publicly available, well-tested, and widely accepted model would greatly benefit the ocean research and management communities, and the nation.
This project plans for the development and maintenance of a national Community Sediment Transport Model (CSTM), to be supported (in part) as a modeling “node” under NOPP. The ongoing discussion on building a CSTM model (Sherwood and others, 2000) is continued and broadened to identify partnerships in sediment transport modeling, to establish a structure for evaluation of sediment transport models, and to evaluate new and existing models. This project is a team effort with academic, industry, and government participants. It augments ongoing partnership efforts initiated by the USGS last year and includes significant cost sharing by the partners. The long-term goal is to promote the development of a node in the “commons for ocean information” that would offer sediment transport models and modeling capabilities. Sooner, rather than later, the intent is to freely distribute one or more models for predicting the transport and long-term fate of sediments in the coastal ocean that can be easily incorporated into the growing capability for hydrodynamic modeling. In addition to model code, model support infrastructure (such as documentation, test cases, and software for managing model input and output) will be provided to the entire scientific community. The specific tasks accomplished in this planning year are to: host three planning meetings; to sponsor a scientific session at the biennial Ocean Sciences meeting; enhance and maintain a community model web site; enlarge the community of active model users and developers; make both conceptual and practical advances in our ability to test and evaluate models; and develop a concrete five-year plan for developing, launching, and supporting a community model.
Number of Years: 1
Partners:
- US Geological Survey
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- NOAA
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science
- HydroQual, Inc
- Rutgers University
- TetraTech, Inc.
- NATO SACLANT
PARADIGM: The Partnership for Advancing Interdisciplinary Global Modeling
Lead PI: Lewis M. Rothstein, University of Rhode Island
PARADIGM is a group of 16 scientists committed to building and deploying new, advanced models of ecology and biogeochemistry for understanding and predicting the future states of the ocean. The group combines expertise of observers and modelers, ecologists and physicists, biogeochemists and numerical specialists. Our overall scientific goal is a rigorous, model- and observation-based intercomparison of ecosystem/biogeochemical dynamics of the North Pacific and Atlantic subtropical-subpolar gyres. Our central objective is creation of new global ocean biogeochemistry community models, comprising complex ecosystem dynamics based on functional groups (e.g., Archaea, diatoms, copepods, gelatinous predators), individual keystone species (e.g., Trichodesmium, Euphausia superba) and multi-element limitation and cycling (e.g., C, N, P, Si, Fe). The physical model platform is composed of a hierarchy of mature, general circulation models each the focus of extensive community model development programs. PARADIGM models are capable of emergent behavior, testing the hypothesis that fundamental regime shifts occur in response to climate change. Community models are developed by interdisciplinary teams devoted to five program elements: (1) data fusion, synthesis and validation; (2) ecosystem model development; (3) high-resolution basin-scale and regional process studies; (4) focus sites (e.g., regional test-beds); and (5) numerical method development (including data assimilation).
Number of Years: 5
Partners:
- Dalhousie University
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- NASA – Goddard Space Flight Center
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- Naval Research Lab
- Old Dominion University
- Oregon State University
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- University of Hawaii
- University of Miami
- University of Rhode Island – Graduate School of Oceanography
- University of Victoria
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
FY 2002 PI Report
FY 2003 PI Report
FY 2004 PI Report
FY 2005 PI Report
A Partnership for Modeling the Marine Environment of Puget Sound, Washington
Lead PI: Mitsuhiro Kawase, University of Washington
A partnership is proposed composed of one academic, three governmental, and one private non-profit organization that seeks to develop predictive modeling capabilities for the circulation and ecosystem of Puget Sound, Washington. The partnership develops, maintains, and operates a system of flexibly linked simulation models of Puget Sound’s circulation and ecosystem, a data management system for archiving and exchanging oceanographic data and model results that are accessible to all members of the partnerships as well as to the regional and oceanographic community, and an effective delivery interface for the model results and observational data for research, education, and policy formulation. The partnership engages in research activities aimed at developing fundamental understanding of the Sound’s working, as well as addressing practical questions raised by the regional community concerning management of the Soundand its resources. The partnership functions as an estuarine research node within the NOPP Ocean Information Commons.
Number of Years: 5
Partners:
- University of Washington
- US Navy – Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
- Washington State Department of Ecology
- Ocean Inquiry Project
- King County Department of Natural Resources
FY 2002 PI Report
FY 2003 PI Report
FY 2004 PI Report
FY 2005 PI Report
FY 2006 PI Report
Additional Reports:
FY 2002 Johnston
FY 2002 Newton
FY 2002 Shuman
FY 2002 Stahr
FY 2004 Stahr
Autonomous Profilers for Carbon-System and Biological Observations
Lead PI: James K.B. Bishop, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
This project’s ultimate aim is to develop low-cost autonomous vehicles outfitted with a suite of low-power optical, physical and chemical sensors which, when widely deployed, will permit high frequency ¡V 4D ¡V observations in the upper 1000-2000 m of the variability of ocean biological processes, carbon biomass, physics and parameters of the carbon system. The immediate goal is to prove the capability to perform high-frequency (hours), long-term (months to seasons), accurate profile observations that are inexpensive enough to be proliferated so that large oceanic areas can be adequately sampled.
The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangian Observer (SOLO) has been developed for deployment within the ARGO project. Under NOPP 1999 funding, SOLO has been modified with fast bidirectional ORB-COMM telemetry and data handling systems; SOLO’s T and S sensors have been augmented with optical sensors for transmission (particulate organic carbon, POC), and light scattering. Two SOLOs that were deployed in the subarctic north Pacific ocean in early April 2001 have returned data streams over 8 weeks with little interruption of observations during stormy weather. Biofouling of the optical sensors is small (e.g., <1% over 80 profiles). An optical particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) sensor has been proven in the lab that shows a linear response from <.1 ƒÝm to > 30 ƒÝm PIC levels and has little interference from other particles. A profiling PIC sensor is nearing completion.
Work during the current phase of the project focuses on analysis and interpretation of the data from the operating SOLOs and the samples and optical data to be collected during the August 2001 R/V New Horizon cruise. This includes exploring the causes of the ‘spike’ signals observed in scattering data which may be due to microzooplankton, aggregates, or near-surface bubbles. The project is also (1) exploring means for complete elimination of biofouling effects on optics; (2) enabling SOLO to have a global 2000 m depth capability and improved GPS performance, and (3) testing these improvements with a pair of SOLOs to be deployed through the 2002-2003 winter in the North Pacific. This work will lay the foundation for expanded sensor suites and recoverable autonomous platforms designed to quantify the reactants, products, and rates of carbon-system processes.
Number of Years: 1
Partners:
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory
- WETLabs, Inc.
For more information on this project, click here.