Objective
The task of the project is to develop an operational and user-friendly measurement device and system to acquire various kinds of parameters down to micro-scales several millimetres in length and some milliseconds in time in the upper ocean (down to approximately 500 metres), coastal and inland waters. Turbulent processes on these scales are relevant for mixing, exchange and dissipation. They have a significant influence on and interact with meso scale and large scale processes which at present have to be parametrized with considerable uncertainty.
The system will measure routinely and with high resolution standard parameters such as conductivity, temperature, pressure and current shear as well as their relative fluctuations in space and time. It is open to other sensors such as refractometers for in-situ density measurements and sensors for e.g. turbidity and chemical parameters. The absolute values will be estimated with incorporated high accuracy standard CTD sensors.
The system will include a free-sinking probe especially designed to preserve the micro-structure during the measurement itself and fibre-optic telemetry to cope with the huge amount of data. A special portable and on-line controlled board-unit (jib-winch system) will be incorporated additionally.
A key part of the MICSOS system will be integrated on-line measurement control and interpretation as well as sophisticated on-board, off-line evaluation software for on-site processing of the data. With this the user will achieve directly relevant parameters such as exchange - and dissipation - coefficients and turbulence characteristics to be directly usable for further validation or integration into numerical models as parameters representing the sub-scale processes. The system is designed to be open and flexible and able to include other micro-structure and standard sensors as well as different sensor heads for various tasks (e.g. sensor arrays for the resolution of active eddies in the micro-structure scale).
The following phases are planned for the development of MICSOS:
Phase Aa: (2 years)
A version of 'Mini-MICSOS' with reduced operation depth, hand-operated and based on available or only slightly modified sensors and system components is planned to be completed and commercially available within the first 2 years of the project.
Phase 1b: (1 year)
- system architecture and design
- planning of internal organisation and interfacing
- construction of sensors and sonde-houses
- development of evaluation, display and control software
- construction of desk equipment (winch and jib)
in-house and laboratory tests of sensors, sonde-house and software
- selected field tests of components
- construction of 2 field-ready systems.
Phase 2:
Field tests and optimization (2 years)
- field tests in various areas of application
- modification and optimization
- interfacing with potential users
- availability of zero-series
- readiness for manufacturing, sale and routine operation.
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
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22880 WEDEL
Germany