Christoph Waldmann

Instrument interface standards for interoperable ocean sensor networks

The utility and cost-effectiveness of instrument networks are enhanced by instrument interoperability. Todays oceanographic instruments are characterized by very diverse non-standard software protocols and data formats. This diversity of protocols poses serious challenges to integration of large-scale sensor networks. Standard instrument protocols are now being developed to address these challenges. Some of these standards apply at the IP-network level and enable integration of existing “lower level” proprietary instrument protocols and software components. Other approaches are intended to be implemented by the instrument device itself. These native instrument protocol standards offer the possibility of more uniform and simpler system architectures. We compare these various approaches, describe how they can be combined with one another, and describe some prototypes that implement them.

Requirements and approaches for a more cost-efficient assessment of ocean waters and ecosystems, and fisheries management

Development of a new generation of multifunctional sensor systems is underway to address ocean monitoring challenges. These range from more precise monitoring of the marine environment to an improved management of fisheries and, among other things, address improved life cycle cost-efficiency. These advances will be achieved through innovations such as multiplatform integration, greater reliability through better antifouling management and greater sensor and data interoperability. Requirements for the sensors have been refined through surveys and discussions with science and industry users. This paper will describe these developments in the NeXOS project.

EXtreme ecosystem studies in the deep OCEan : Technological Developments

EXOCET/D was a three-year project that started in 2004 and that was funded by the European Commission (STREP, FP6-GOCE-CT-2003-505342). The general objective of this project was to develop, implement and test specific technologies aimed at exploring, describing and quantifying biodiversity in deep-sea fragmented habitats as well as at identifying links between community structure and environmental dynamics. The MoMARETO cruise, held during the summer 2006, was the main demonstration action of EXOCET/D. After nearly 3 years of development, the project was a real success with the at sea trial and validation of 13 instrument prototypes developed for the study of deep-sea extreme habitats. These instruments were dedicated to quantitative imaging, in situ measurements, faunal sampling and in vivo experiments.

Passive acoustic quantification of underwater gas seepage

In this paper the design, methodology and the experimental results obtained through a novel passive-acoustic based device for quantifying the gas flux from bubble plumes and marine seeps are presented. In order to estimate gas flux variations a gas capture buoy is designed. The seep environment is simulated by forcing compressed air through a submerged tube. Different flow rates are generated by changing only the pressure of the supplied air. The assembly collects gas and redirects it through a nozzle mounted on top of a collector, where the sound of the gas leaving the nozzle is recorded through a single hydrophone. A quantitative gas flux estimate is made using a Morlet wavelet based analysis of the recorded sound signals series. The data from the acoustic measurement is compared with the data from the visual measurements, as well as with the measurements at a gas flow meter. The accuracy of the acoustic approach is found to be in the range of ~3% for the high air fluxes and up to 0% for the low fluxes. The technique elaborated in this paper will be employed in the volume gas flux measurements in seep active areas. Some sources such as marine seepage are poorly quantified due to a lack of consistent measurement techniques. Quantifying the bubbling flux of methane and other gasses through the hydrosphere and into the atmosphere is important for estimating global budgets

The European Deep Sea Observatories Network of Excellence ESONET

ESONET is an European Network of Excellence (NoE) associating 50 partners (research centres, universities, industrials and SMEs) from 14 countries: France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria and Turkey. More than 300 scientists and engineers will participate to its activities. The goal of the ESONET NOE is the lasting integration of European research on deep sea multidisciplinary observatories. Over the initial 4 years, the approach will be to merge the programmes of members Organisations through research activities addressing the scientific objectives and networking activities specially designed for integration and spreading excellence. ESONET NoE will create an organisation capable of implementing, operating and maintaining a network of multidisciplinary ocean observatories in deep waters around Europe. The NoE will structure the resources of the participating institutes to create the necessary critical mass, remove barriers and through a joint programme of activities arrive at durable solutions for this future organisation.

The German Contribution to ESONET - Integrating Activities for Setting up an Interoperable Ocean Observation System in Europe

The project ESONET which is coordinated by IFREMER, France, is a European initiative towards establishing new -and making use of existing- ocean observatories around Europe for observing natural processes that are either very episodic or statistically require long time series. The most important processes are: (1) the episodic release of methane from the seabed affecting climate change, (2) the relationship between earthquakes, tsunami generation and submarine slope failures, and (3) the short term biogeochemical processes affecting the marine ecosystem. One of the major tasks is to integrate the existing infrastructures with new components to establish a coherent, long-term, manageable seafloor observation system within the larger scope of Earth observation systems. To reach this goal activities on different levels and in different fields have to be started to achieve a smooth interplay on the management and the implementation levels. Foremost is the integration of regional observatory initiatives, the integration of existing data and infrastructures in Europe, the sharing of facilities and the link with other international observatory programmes. Interoperability has to be achieved by building up on proven standardisation procedures. Any standardisation initiative has to start on the sensor level leading through the middleware up to an interoperable data access system. Existing realisation concepts will be evaluated and possibly adopted in its original form or modified Besides the data collection chain, the service and maintenance procedures for installing instruments and platforms on the sites of interest have to be standardised as well. This is related to the operation deployment tools like ROVs and dedicated Lander systems or the preparation of special installations making use of special drilling devices. Overall, this leads to the formation of a sustainable operation system for the anticipated observatory infrastructure. In particular in the US and Canada intense discussions on this topic have been started and are continuing. Setting up firm links between all these initiatives and deriving a cooperative approach only makes ocean observatories a truly relevant building block for a global earth observation system. It is of utmost importance that ESONET is able to contribute to these discussions properly as Europe has a strong interest in this field not just scientifically but also for instance as part of a general strategy for establishing early warning systems. All these activities will be undertaken in close cooperation with other ongoing projects in particular with the GEO initiative where GMES forms the European component of GEO. As part of the 10 years implementation plan GEO will as a first step come up with concepts for integrating existing data sources into an interoperable system. For the ESONET initiative five German institutions have formed a partnership under the umbrella of KDM. This enables a better coordination regarding the integration of scientific needs as well as technically feasible solutions. KDM is an organisation meant to coordinate marine research activities in Germany, particularly in regard to European efforts, to avoid parallel activities, and to ensure a more efficient course of action vis-a-vie funding agencies and science policy makers. This approach is indispensable for the ESONET initiative to be successful. The German members of the ESONET team under KDM umbrella with their main area of expertise are: University of Bremen -Ocean margin research, employing dedicated deep sea instrumentation Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology - Biogeochemical processes making use of newly developed sensor systems. International University of Bremen -Seafloor investigations employing recording instrumentation. Alfred-Wegener-Institute -Polar research disposing over the essential technical infrastructure. IFM-GEOMAR -Seafloor and water column processes.

From ESONET multidisciplinary scientific community to EMSO novel European research infrastructure for ocean observation

Environmental and climate changes are crucial challenges for sustainable living because of their significant impact on the Earth system and the important consequences for natural resources. Oceans have a primary role in these changes as they regulate heat flux, greenhouse gases and climate whilst harboring many different life forms and resources. Understanding processes in the marine environment is of paramount importance for any prediction of short-, intermediate- and long-term global change.

Objectives of the NeXOS project in developing next generation ocean sensor systems for a more cost-efficient assessment of ocean waters and ecosystems, and fisheries management

The NeXOS project aims to develop new multifunctional sensor systems supporting a number of scientific, technical and societal objectives, ranging from more precise monitoring and modelling of the marine environment to an improved management of fisheries. Several sensors will be developed, based on optical and passive acoustics technologies, addressing key environmental descriptors identified by the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) for Good Environmental Status (GES). Two of the new sensors will also contribute to the European Union Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), with a focus on variables of interest to an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF). An objective is the improved cost-efficiency, from procurement to operations, via the implementation of several innovations, such as multiplatform integration, greater reliability through better antifouling management, greater sensor and data interoperability and the creation of market opportunities for European enterprises. Requirements will be further analysed for each new sensor system during the first phase of the project. Those will then be translated into engineering specifications, leading to the development phase. Sensors will then be tested, calibrated, integrated on several platform types, scientifically validated and demonstrated in the field. Translation to production and broad adoption are facilitated by participating industry. Overall, the paper presents an overview of the project objectives and plans for the next four years.

SeaCycler: A Moored Open-Ocean Profiling System for the Upper Ocean in Extended Self-Contained Deployments

The upper ocean, including the biologically productive euphotic zone and the mixed layer, has great relevance for studies of physical, biogeochemical, and ecosystem processes and their interaction. Observing this layer with a continuous presence, sampling many of the relevant variables, and with sufficient vertical resolution, has remained a challenge. Here a system is presented that can be deployed on the top of deep-ocean moorings, with a drive mechanism at depths of 150–200 m, which mechanically winches a large sensor float and smaller communications float tethered above it to the surface and back down again, typically twice per day for periods up to 1 year. The sensor float can carry several sizeable sensors, and it has enough buoyancy to reach the near surface and for the communications float to pierce the surface even in the presence of strong currents. The system can survive mooring blowover to 1000-m depth. The battery-powered design is made possible by using a balanced energy-conserving principle. Reliability is enhanced with a drive assembly that employs a single rotating part that has no slip rings or rotating seals. The profiling bodies can break the surface to sample the near-surface layer and to establish satellite communication for data relay or reception of new commands. An inductive pass-through mode allows communication with other mooring components throughout the water column beneath the system. A number of successful demonstration deployments have been completed.

CMOVE- a versatile underwater vehicle for seafloor studies

CMOVE is a wheel driven underwater vehicle that has been developed to conduct measurements at the sediment/water interface. It can be either operated as an autonomous vehicle or tethered with a fibre optic cable. In the current configuration the power supply allows for covering a range of the order of 100s of meter and a deployment time of about 12 hours using the type of scientific payload that is currently installed. During a cruise with the German research vessel MERIAN in the Black Sea in April 2010 ten deployments of the system has been carried out. All missions were completed successful and a significant amount of technical data to judge about the performance of the system has been collected. As a general conclusion it can be said that the vehicle concept has been proven to be very successful in regard to the payload integration and steering capability. The later characteristic is very important as one of the main scientific goals is to investigate the spatial variability of biological activity which is reflected in the patchiness of the sediment surface structure. To probe the actual spot of interest and not just following a preprogrammed pattern is of utmost importance as the spatial variability of the processes that occur at the sediment/water interface is largely unknown up to now. It is very important that the vehicle does not disturb the anticipated measurements for instance by exerting too much force on the sediment or by dispersing extensive amounts of dust with the propulsion system. It could be verified by visual inspection with a high resolution camera that the amount of redeposited sediment was negligible. In regard to the performance of the developed wheels the underwater images of the tracks showed that the slip of the wheels was very low. This demonstrates a high power efficiency of the propulsion system. Also the weight distribution is critical as this will influence the wheel performance and the steering of the vehicle. The individual dive was carried out by deploying the system with a depressor weight which decoupled the vehicle from the ship motion and the cable drag. The operation range was limited to a diameter of 50 m around the depressor. For reaching areas outside the range the ship followed the vehicle in the direction of motion making use of a very precise operating dynamic positioning system. In this paper the basic vehicle concept will be recapitulated and compared with the achieved results. Furthermore, the range of applications where this vehicle concept is best suited and outperforms other approaches are described.