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Flux Measurements with AUVs

Water Velocity Measurements with AUVs

In 2014, I led an NSF-funded Sentry program that, for the first time, provided the necessary instrumentation for validating water velocity measurements from deep-diving AUVs. State estimation methods I have previously developed were used to provide improved vehicle and water velocity estimates and these results  compared to measurements from seafloor mounted instrumentation. Stochastic approaches, that consider the uncertainty of sensor measurements are also being explored — an approach previously not used for estimating water velocities from moving AUVs. The unique experimental setup that includes seafloor mounted instrumentation, such as seafloor-mounted ADCPs and cameras measuring diffuse and focused hydrothermal flow, will provide measurements for validating the AUV obtained measurements. In collaboration with geophysicists, the data from these experiments are being assimilated with geophysical measurements to provide improved estimates of hydrothermal flux.

Launching the Sentry AUV in July 2014 for a 12 hour mission to measure heat flux at the ASHES hydrothermal vent site. Sentry was equipped with two high resolution temperature sensors, a Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, and two Acoustic Doppler Current Profiliers.