J.M. Campbell

Use of a Ferrybox system to look at shelf sea and ocean margin process

Abstract In 2002 a robust minimum maintenance system to measure temperature, conductivity, and chlorophyll fluorescence was installed on a ferry running twice weekly between Portsmouth, UK and Bilbao, Spain. Logged data are transferred from the engine room to an Orbcom satellite communicator on the bridge. On shore data enters an SQL database with access from a public web page. Data from the Iberian margin is linked to monthly surveys by IEO. Target work includes:the structure, transport of and seasonal devel- opment of water masses, and scaling of patchiness of plankton blooms in regions with different hydrographic characteristics.

Probe technologies for clean sampling and measurement of subglacial lakes

It is 4 years since the subglacial lake community published its plans for accessing, sampling, measuring and studying the pristine, and hitherto enigmatic and very different, Antarctic subglacial lakes, Vostok, Whillans and Ellsworth. This paper summarizes the contrasting probe technologies designed for each of these subglacial environments and briefly updates how these designs changed or were used differently when compared to previously published plans. A detailed update on the final engineering design and technical aspects of the probe for Subglacial Lake Ellsworth is presented. This probe is designed for clean access, is negatively buoyant (350 kg), 5.2 m long, 200 mm in diameter, approximately cylindrical and consists of five major units: (i) an upper power and communications unit attached to an optical and electrical conducting tether, (ii)–(iv) three water and particle samplers, and (v) a sensors, imaging and instrumentation pack tipped with a miniature sediment corer. To date, only in Subglacial Lake Whillans have instruments been successfully deployed. Probe technologies for Subglacial Lake Vostok (2014/15) and Lake Ellsworth (2012/13) were not deployed for technical reasons, in the case of Lake Ellsworth because hot-water drilling was unable to access the lake during the field season window. Lessons learned and opportunities for probe technologies in future subglacial access missions are discussed.

A study of gas exchange during the transition from deep winter mixing to spring bloom in the Bay of Biscay measured by continuous observation from a ship of opportunity

Monitoring from ships of opportunity allows a wide range of parameters to be measured, thereby extending the coverage of operational oceanographic studies. Observation of dissolved oxygen using new sensors offers an effective way of monitoring changes in biological production. The limits of the application were tested following the transition from winter storms to the spring bloom (2007). Calculation of dissolved nitrogen enables changes in gas saturation due to physical and biological processes to be separated. By combining these measurements with data from numerical models and Argo floats the critical role of subsurface processes in determining rates of change at the surface can be assessed

Collaborative Ocean Resource Interoperability: Multi-use of Ocean Data on the Semantic Web

Earth Observations (EO) collect various characteristics of the objective environment using sensors which often have different measuring, spatial and temporal coverage. Making individual observational data interoperable becomes equally important when viewed in the context of its expensive and time-consuming EO operations. Interoperability will improve reusability of existing observations in both the broader context, and with other observations. As a demonstration of the potential offered by semantic web technology, we have used the National Oceanography Centre Southamptons Ferrybox project (where suites of environmental sensors installed on commercial ships collect near real time data) to set up an ontology based reference model of a Collaborative Ocean, where relevant oceanographic resources, such as sensors and observations, can be semantically annotated by their stakeholders to produce RDF format metadata to facilitate data/resource interoperability in a distributed environment. We have also demonstrated an infrastructure where common semantic management activities are supported, including ontology management, semantic annotation, storage, and reuse (navigating, inference and query). Once the method and infrastructure are adopted by other related oceanographic projects to describe their resources and move their metadata onto the semantic web, it would be possible to see better interoperability within the Collaborative Ocean initiative to facilitate multiuse of ocean data, as well as making more EO data available on the semantic web.

Weathering the storm: developments in the acoustic sensing of wind and rain

An Acoustic Rain Gauge (ARG) analyses the underwater sound levels across a wide frequency range, classifies the observed spectrum according to likely source and then determines the local wind speed or rain rate as appropriate. This paper covers a trial on the Scotian Shelf off Canada, comparing the geophysical information derived from the acoustic signals with those obtained from other sources.

Distributed sensor relay system for near real time observation, control and data management on a scientific research ship

Adding intelligence to deployed instruments in an oceanographic environment of restricted bandwidth helps to improve service quality and enables autonomous observation and data management. Delay tolerance and remote access often pose challenges to providing near real time observation. We have experimented with a distributed hybrid web enabled sensor system and conducted its deployment in a scientific oceanographic cruise. The purpose of the experiment was to study the feasibility and performance of narrow-band network relay communication in an oceanographic environment to assist near real time observation and sensor control. The restriction of resources, in particular the unreliable Internet satellite connection and lack of bandwidth prevent a centralized real-time system from working properly. Bandwidth tests were conducted and a delay tolerant networked relay has been introduced by de-coupling the functions to make it like a distributed system. Multiple nodes are setup across the ship, cloud Internet, and laboratory ashore to form a loosely coupled and balanced networked system. The system also aims to form a foundation platform for integrating higher level services to support oceanographic observation, data management with interoperability, such as OGC SWE services and IEEE 1451 smart sensor standards.

Monitoring precipitation using underwater acoustic remote sensing

Abstract Multi-frequency measurements of underwater noise offer the possibility of estimating environmental parameters to useful accuracy and, specifically, of separately providing wind speed and rainfall data. The technique and the experimental set-up are described and results presented for several locations under different conditions. Comparisons of rainfall are made with in situ measurements and with rain radar data. The acoustic technique appears to be sensitive to relatively low precipitation rates but there are signif- icant quantitative differences which we relate to the particular characteristics of each system. Ways in which the buoy systems might be deployed to complement satellite measurements are also discussed.