## Scientist/Platforms Meeting ## ## Wed Mar 2 14:00-15:00 (16:00) Ship's View ## Paull, Caress, (Barry out), Johnson ## O'Reilly, Headley, McEwen, Hamilton, Thomas ## Nominal Agenda - Discussion on science initiatives at MBARI - Major science programs - Major science questions - Experiments and measurements needed - Relevant platforms programs - State of the art - MBARI activities - New developments - Future Interactions: Ideas for a science/engineering working structure ## Notes Johnson: NSF proposals ARGO floats w/ chemical sensors whole ocean productivity: way to get to basin scale U/W Argo float gurus , APEX USFla BSOP benthic stn ocean profiler (4 lb buoy change, deployed on shelf) 1600 argo floats in ocean (uniform dist at 3000) southern ocean is light 2000m profiles in open ocean change buoyancy by 4g or so, pumps oil don't get enough samples on ship, not enough moorings for coverage next big thing ARGO type floats (how to be different) search ARGO float jcomops.argo.org? ocean basin scale productivity measurements measure baseline now, before ocean global carbon cycle what chemical sensors nutrient, heat content 40K for argo w/ instruments, 4 yr lifetime (10k.yr) what are limits? run on batteries, argos telemetry, sensor drift, moving to iridium slowly no event response, more samples better, faster time, data, number of floats more interested in completely passive platforms? vis avis gliders? glider payload is big issue, argo float can be just added to semi smart argo float (flapper wings to keep station) ARGO floats are completely free floating, variants for coastal work less active control than glider not generally recoverable (disposable). glider would be 110K, with sensors Webb makes gliders, APEX floats argo floats spend several days at depth before cycling focus biology: top 200 m of water column flux.ocean.washington.edu: measurments: oxygen (gen indicator of life), nitrogen (), fluorometer (chlorophyll) need way to meas pH stabilly (high impedance meas, high precision, wide dynamic range) sensor drift, biofouling (o2 electrode, some can run for 2 yrs (sit at depth for a lot of time)) iridium helps, because it doesn't have to be at the surface for a long time power budget for float is 60% for ARGOS, 20% for iridium one of top science issues: what will happen to primary productivity as ocean warms? is there more or less mixing and therefore more or less productivity Caress: right in middle of platform issue: seafloor mapping auv where do we need to go with dorodo auv, what can't we do now, where we're limited. mapping auv is going, will be using again shortly tbd: acoustic comms, controls issues, obstacle avoidance, navigation (LBL, USBL, INS) operating system (QNX->linux, user interfaces) moving towards operational/support engr mode, but need core support for improvements, enhancements batteries at operational depth, real time data quality enhancements adjust gains autonomously e.g., survey autonomously: fly repeatable tracks navigate in canyons, etc Would like institute to continue focus on improving and develop to full potential Paull---> how to develop to replace deep towed instruments in some applications 1M 6x6 km 3x on cruise (big ship, MOB/DEMOB, big overhead) Norway, S. Cal, Peru,...many places don't want to let assets like this to go to waste, need to establish long term plans for life cycle of assets, how it will be funded (including operational use), need expedition targets how to get mapping auv to be an asset used (demanded) by community when operational, could be made available for NURP (natl undersea research program) NURP offices have restricted geographical domains Staffing needed (from MBARI) to operate dorado vehicles today: if there is a plan, staffing issues become more visible. won't happen unless we are failing because the staff we have is not adequate. engr mgmt nominally supports connection in informal way (riding boats as technician) next week 6 days at shepards meander w/ charlie paull must structure deployments with intermediate deployments, and keep in touch with science PIs in the interrim. MBARI has gold-plating problems (don't deploy until very developed), better to have intermediate deployments. Thresholds of accomplishment, that can be articulated and allow you to move on to the next milestone. Our goals are grand, but we don't articulate our accomplishments along the way. Communication must be to more than just engr groups: need to produce data along the way. Not really useful to send engr as observer only -- need to have a task MBARI emphasizes a narrow class of AUVs -> energy system technology; were at the limits going short time and space isn't useful. we don't have core expertise, but it's critical to the performance of these vehicles. haven't yet optimized range (but ~36 instead of 24 hrs, still not enough) who consumes mapping data? mapping bottom interface of ocean: fundamental to many br morphology, lithograpy geology, geophysics (paull, greene, clague) get high freqh sonar to deep ocean to get hi res mapping data benthic biolo( vreinhoek, barry): find community, chrac Big Themes: Flux of fluids and gases through ocean floor (integrates surface with seafloor) Transport of material across/along ocean floor (sediment, nutrients) Motivates MOOS, borehole science platforms could work to find new ways of using (MOOS, mapping auv) to study these problems so they aren't wasted. shepard's meander experiemnt is a good one. mbari doesn'teven have $ to do this one experiment well, to buy sensors. what would next experiemtn be, where? we need a long term plan to inform choices that will be made in the future about what we'll use and support. NASA loihi propsal: came about for the right reasons: where is best place in world to detect event that would use what MOOS is good at. Many unsuccessful hotels built to watch volcanic eruptions...Loihi: likely to be event, close enough to respond. for these systems to be useful, the location has to be right should our strategy be to use ext money for things like MOOS? now that MOOS (e.g) exists, makes sense to put it where it is likely to do best Mapping AUV is marketable for getting outside funds. with MOOS (e.g.), we wrote big whitepaper themes, then whitepaper gets implemented, but misses step where sci/engr beg for $ to get small specific, planned, kernels of accomplishments. No unit pricing and buy in established. Would be good for engr to survey: what % of next 5 years do you plan to commit to various platforms. ORION... How can we structure MOOS to make it more useful along the way? It's about time to figure out what best first place for MOOS. Never decided if it was to be cheap or a few high tech moorings. will MOOS or MARS be (useful) first? look at common capabilities of both to see which would provide good science. MARS is designed as a testbed...might mature like ROVs did (wall of operations around it). Testbed nature of MARS is emphasized in proposal, and to NSF, but will be graded on what it accomplishes scientifically. Is MARS location of scientifically interesting? One of best uses of MARS in the long run might be to make long-term pH measurements. MOOS benthic node should be able to plug into MARS node-> if science says we want to make experiments that can be done on MOOS or MARS, MARS will take notice. Is MARS supposed to be interoperable with MOOS or not? Need to hammer out what is/isn't compatible between MOOS/MARS Science is interested (endorses) MOOS/MARS interoperability Any document about platforms: becareful not ignore importance of ROVs Who are key ROV users? Steve Rock, ROVUC, everyone else at MBARI MBARI is doing too many things: how to decide what can be carved away to make room for what's important today and tomorrow? Platforms and Science together could work together to establish what's important (again, the survey of committment )