Monitoring ocean turbulence and sound with Seagliders

 

Seagliders  are a low cost class of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), designed for sustained, continuous sampling of the water column to depths of 1000m. They can be deployed for long range missions lasting up to nine months, sending sample data back when they surface via Iridium Satellite telemetry.

Seagliders can be fitted with a range of sensors to measure various ocean parameters, such as currents, turbidity, temperature,salinity, density, pH, dissolved oxygen, PAR irradiance and fluorometry, as well as monitoring of crude and refined hydrocarbons.

Kongsberg Underwater Technologies Inc, of Seattle, recently released two new options for Seaglider sensor payloads.

The Microstructure Turbulence Sensor Package allows the collection of data for ocean turbulence modelling.  Ocean turbulence affects climate, fisheries, coastal ecology and subsea engineering, and is being increasingly recognised as an important parameter for understanding and predicting climate change.

The Seaglider Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) package is ideal for general purpose environmental acoustic moinitoring applications. Typical applications include the study of baseline ambient ocean noise in areas of interest, monitoring of noise levels during offshore operations, characterisation of seismic survey source, subsea pipeline leak detection and subsea equipment noise monitoring.  

Fastwave is Kongsberg's  Australian Channel Partner, providing sensor integration, technical and operational support for the Seaglider system.

Global, mobile satellite Broadband on the way

 

Acquiring real-time data from sensors, equipment, mobile assets and autonomous devices operating in remote areas of the world is often constrained by lack of bandwidth on mobile satellite systems, which are usually the only communication option available. Due to size and power limitations,  it is usually impractical for these applications to use the stabilised antennas necessary for satellite systems that offer higher bandwidth.

However, the Iridium NEXT constellation, due for launching from late 2015, will be a game-changer for many applications that require high bandwidth data capability from remote sensing systems, such as Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV's), ocean observing systems, offshore oil & gas infrastructure, SCADA systems and others.

The new Iridium NEXT satellites  will continue the existing constellation architecture of 66 cross-linked Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites covering the entire globe, but the higher bandwidth Iridium  service (512kbps up, 1.5mbps down) will dramatically enhance Iridium's ability to meet the rapidly-expanding demand for truly global mobile communications on land, at sea and in the skies.         

The higher data capacity will be invaluable for emerging autonomous marine and airborne vehicle technologies, which rely on increasingly sophisticated sensor and communication payloads for data and image capture.

The first prototype satellite transceivers have recently been delivered to selected Iridium integration partners for interoperability testing, with the initial service commencing Q4 2016.  

Fastwave is an Iridium Value Added Manufacturer, and specialises in integrating the Iridium system with sensor payloads for autonomous devices such as Wave Gliders.

Voyager Drifter Buoy Update

 

Fastwave has been designing and manufacturing satellite drifter buoys since 2004, the latest of which is the Voyager ocean current tracking buoy.  Since its commercial release in 2014, the Voyager has been used for ocean current tracking, dredge plume modelling and oil spill preparedness by meteorological, oil spill response and environmental service organisations in locations from Australia to Alaska.  

One of the primary attributes of the Voyager is accurate tracking of the upper surface layer of the ocean, which is particularly relevant for oil spill and Search and Rescue applications. The Voyager's design, with integral hull fins and minimal surface exposure, results in very little wind-induced leeway when compared with spherical drifter designs.

A feature that has been particularly useful to Voyager users is the ability to easily change battery packs in the field, rather than having to return the buoy to the manufacturer for replacement.

Fastwave's new Seaglider Pilot

Fastwave's Dr Max Ong, ( pictured above right with Elizabeth Creed and Rich Patterson from Kongsberg Underwater Technologies Inc) recently spent two weeks  at Kongsberg's Seaglider facility in Seattle, where he received training in Seaglider piloting and maintenance. Max also spent time with the Kongsberg team looking at new sensor integration opportunities for the Seaglider, including the turbulence and PAM sensor packages referred to above.

While in the USA, Max also visited Liquid Robotics in California, where he spent time discussing the development of Wave Glider sensor and communication payload systems with their engineering team.

Fastwave will now be supporting Seaglider and Wave Glider clients in the region with sensor integration, technical support, piloting, data management and maintenance services.

Wave Gliders for Turbidity Monitoring

 

Since 2007, Fastwave has been providing near-real time systems for in-situ monitoring of dredge plumes on some of the world's largest capital dredging projects.

Wave Gliders can be used to cost-effectively acquire long time-series of spatio-temporal variability for a varierty of marine environmental parameters, including turbidity associated with dredging activity.

Fastwave recently developed a modified tow-body for use with Wave Gliders, featuring an integrated  turbidity sensor. The tow-body is towed underwater by the Wave Glider, allowing measurement of turbidity levels in the water column. A built-in sensor management computer in the tow-body can log, process, analyze and report data in near real-time over Iridium satellite telemetry. Dr Max Ong is shown testing the  modified tow-body before deployment.

Fastwave instruments Wave Gliders to remotely detect, monitor and communicate a wide range of parameters at the sea surface layer, sub-surface and in air.

New Water Quality Sensors

 

A new range of on-line and portable water quality monitoring sensors is now available from Chelsea Technologies Group (CTG). “We’ve just launched an exciting new range of on-line and portable monitoring systems which provides significant advances in monitoring key parameters within the Water Industry,” said Chelsea’s Justin Dunning.

Addressing the management of both water supply and water recovery plants, the following systems are now available through Fastwave, CTG's Australian Distributor:

Oil-Station & Oil-Wader – These systems provide real-time measurements of dissolved Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons either on-line for use in a process control environment or as a portable in situ system for use in the field.

Algae-Station & Algae-Wader – These systems provide real-time display of key chlorophyll parameters either on-line or in situ.

BOD-Station & BOD-Wader - These systems allow water process engineers to assess real-time levels of Biological Oxygen Demand in water systems either on-line or in situ.

Bacti-Station & Bacti-Wader – These systems provide real-time highly sensitive measurements for assessing bacteria levels in water.

New Ocean Asset Recovery Beacon

 

The APOLLO is the latest in Xeos’s line of equipment to aid in the recovery of ocean assets. The new APOLLO unit combines all the best features of Iridium communication beacons and LED Flashers. Features of the APOLLO GPS/Iridium/LED flasher include:

 

  • Up to 10 years deployment on Alkaline batteries
  • Latest GPS technology
  • Selectable command to turn flasher on via Iridium
  • Full ocean depth rating of 11,000m
  • Rugged all-titanium enclosure design
  • Remote Configuration via BT4.0 Bluetooth or Iridium
  • Anti-Piracy/Covert operation Mode

Fastwave at APPEA HSE & Autonomous Underwater Technologies Conferences

 

 

Fastwave will be participating at the  APPEA HSE Conference (7-9 September) and the Autonomous Underwater Technology (AUT 2015) Conference (22 October), both in Perth.  On display will be autonomous marine data acquistion systems from Kongsberg and Liquid Robotics, as well as remote sensing  and communication technologies to support these. We look forward to welcoming you there.