Instrumentation of SEASWAB experiment

Abstract

From September 1975 to April 1976 offshore production Platform V in South Pass, Block 28 (East Bay, Louisiana), was instrumented to measure the effect of storm waves on the soft sediments typical of the Mississippi delta (in a project given the acronym SEASWAB). A portion of this project consisted of four identifiable units of instrumentation (see note): (1) an accelerometer package buried 1 m in the sediment to measure three‐dimensional sediment accelerations and an associated pressure transducer, which measured wave‐induced pressures; (2) an array of instruments that included a wave staff, electromagnetic current meter, and a pressure transducer to examine various relationships between wave properties; (3) a wave‐, current‐, and wind‐measuring station 3.35 km inshore of Platform V to determine the transformation of the waves as they moved over the sediments; and (4) a transponder buried in the mud, the position monitored so that long‐term mudflow could be measured. The direct measurement of seafloor oscillations required the unique instrumentation of the accelerometer system. Three Bruel and Kjaer 8306 accelerometers mounted at right angles to each other made possible the measurement of small oscillations (～0.01 m) at low frequencies (0.1–0.3 Hz). The acoustic method of measuring long‐term mudflow was subject to problems associated with sound propagation in shallow water. The range of the system was found to be 2.74 km, apparently independent of depth. Multiple returns received after single interrogations of the transponder decreased the accuracy of the system.     

Instrumentation needs for ocean biology

Research and development in ocean engineering, particularly in the areas of deep ocean drilling and platform construction, have progressed remarkably in the past few decades. By and large, instrumentation for biological ocean research, in comparison, remains simplistic. A brief review of marine biological sampling devices is provided, indicating the relative inadequacies of marine bio-instrumentation. Equipment for plankton, benthos, and nekton sampling has been improved in recent years compared to that available for nannoplankton. Nevertheless, there are limitations even in the best of these devices, and improvements in sampling gear would benefit ocean biology significantly. Precise sample collection of surface slicks, water column, and ocean sediment is mandatory for biological assessment of environmental impact. The necessary sampling gear is either not available or under development and, in cases where the instrumentation is available, it is, in general, either limited in application or not entirely reliable. As an example, increasingly, the ocean serves as the receptor of discharge from sewage outfalls, deep water disposal, and ocean dumping. Thus assessment of biological impact is required, particularly in light of the increasing frequency of reports of survival of bacteria and viruses pathogenic for man in those regions of the world oceans significantly affected by these activities. Improved instrumentation for aseptic sample collection and retrieval of water, sediment, and biota for quantitative, as well as qualitative, microbiological analyses are needed. Developments in baromicrobiology have been rapid, but improved instrumentation is needed. Even though aseptic collection of deep ocean water samples is possible, sediment sample collection for microbiology is still accomplished by coring or grab devices, with no instrument yet available for quantitative undisturbed sample collection without contamination from water column microorganisms.     

多传感器组合导航系统研究

为了满足水下航行器高精度导航定位的需求,建立了多传感器组合导航的系统模型。针对信息融合过程中出现的非线性环节,在传统联邦滤波器的基础上,提出了基于粒子滤波的混合联邦滤波器。其中,线性子系统采用卡尔曼滤波算法进行滤波估计,非线性子系统采用粒子滤波算法进行滤波估计。计算机仿真分析表明,该混合联邦滤波算法能够将线性和非线性子系统的滤波结果很好地融合起来,提高了组合导航系统的定位精度。     

Multiuser Communications Using Passive Time Reversal

A recent paper (Song , IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 170-178, 2006) demonstrated multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communications in shallow water using active time reversal where the time reversal array (i.e., base station) sent different messages to multiple users simultaneously over a common bandwidth channel. Passive time reversal essentially is equivalent to active time reversal with the communications link being in the opposite direction. This paper describes passive time reversal communications which enables multiple users to send information simultaneously to the time reversal array. Experimental results at 3.5 kHz with a 1-kHz bandwidth demonstrate that as many as six users can transmit information over a 4-km range in a 120-m-deep water using quaternary phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation, achieving an aggregate data rate of 6 kb/s. Moreover, the same data rate has been achieved at 20-km range by three users using 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM).     

Instrumentation problems related to determining geotechnical properties of ocean sediments

The extraction of most oceanic resources including the methods and economics is influenced by the nature and type of the ocean floor as well as the extent to which the geotechnical properties of the ocean bed can be confidently evaluated. In the near-shore and inner continental shelf zones, methods for such evaluation are mostly extensions and modifications of the conventional procedures used onshore. With the expansion of offshore activities into deeper zones, new techniques are needed for preliminary and detailed evaluation of ocean bed characteristics if operations in these deeper regions are to be viable. In recent years, there has been a proliferation in the instrumentation for offshore environments. Geotechnical engineers generally have limited exposure to sophisticated instrumentation techniques, nor are the instrumentation engineers fully conversant with details of geotechnical measurements and their application. This paper reviews the methods currently used for evaluating geotechnical properties of the ocean floor including sampling (corers, etc.), in situ testing (shear vanes, penetrometers, etc.), and indirect (seismic, acoustic, etc.) techniques. The type of data that a geotechnical engineer generally wishes to obtain, the problems in obtaining them, and the application of the data in practice are briefly reviewed.     

地磁模型与地磁导航

分析了地磁模型研究现状,阐明了地磁模型描述方法,研究了利用地磁模型开展地磁导航的技术原理,论述了地磁导航的军事价值,为我国开展地磁导航应用研发提供技术依据。     

日本海洋卫星技术、海洋仪器新进展

由于海洋卫星技术在海洋科学研究、海洋资源开发、减灾防灾以及国防军事方面的广泛应用,它越来越受到世界各国的巨大关注。1980年至2002年美国、欧盟、法国、日本和中国等国家,相继发射与海洋有关的卫星达16颗。其中,日本的海洋卫星技术发展取得了世界瞩目的成就。本文还介绍了日本近年来开发研制的几种海洋观测仪器、它们的技术性能及用途。     

海洋压力监测仪器实验室校准结果不确定度的分析

文中总结了海洋压力监测仪器实验室校准的不确定度来源项，结合不确定度的评定方法，以实例阐述了海洋压力监测仪器实验室校准的不确定度的分析评定。     

Reciprocal acoustic transmissions: Instrumentation for Mesoscale monitoring of ocean currents

By simultaneously transmitting acoustic pulses in opposite directions between two points in midocean, one can separate the effects of ocean currents on acoustic propagation from the effects of sound-speed structure. Reciprocal acoustic transmissions can therefore be used to measure ocean currents. Acoustic transceivers have been designed and built to measure the mean currents between two points separated by 300 km. The equipment functioned satisfactorily during a sbort test conducted during 1983. Preliminary analysis of that experiment has yielded differential travel times that appear reasonable, but more work is required to relate the differential travel times to meaningful ocean-current estimates.     

中国内河电子航道图发展研究

在我国内河水运现代化快速构建时期和我国内河电子航道图发展初期,采用文献计量学、网络资源搜索、行业调查分析等方法,从研究国际内河电子航道图发展现状的基础出发,从成果现状和技术现状阐述中国内河电子航道图的发展现状。从标准发展、生产发展、应用发展、技术发展等方面分析中国内河电子航道图的发展趋势,得出中国内河电子航道图发展面临的困难与机遇,提出发展建议,以推动我国内河水运现代化进程。     

反预置武器体系、装备与技术发展概述

水下预置武器是一种可装载导弹、无人机、AUV 等载荷的新型水中兵器,在和平时期该武器潜伏于水下,战时可立即将其激活,对指定目标实施侦察、打击、突袭等,为了对抗这一新型水中兵器,我国应尽快发展反预置武器系统。针对反预置武器作战需求,构建了反预置监测、搜寻、处置体系,并根据各体系发展需求,阐述了未来急需发展的武器装备及关键技术,从体系、装备和技术 3 个层次为我国发展反预置武器系统提出了具体思路。     

钱塘江河口段通航能力的初步分析

本文阐述了钱塘江通海航道的现状,指出仓前至尖山的中段航道影响着河口出海通航能力,四工段浅滩是主要的碍航浅滩。文中还对不同水文条件下,钱塘江河口段的乘潮保证率和最大可能出海运量作了分析,在此基础上提出了改善航道条件的措施。     

Improvement of Time-Reversal Communications Using Adaptive Channel Equalizers

The spatial and temporal focusing properties of time-reversal methods can be exploited for undersea acoustic communications. Spatial focusing mitigates channel fading and produces a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the intended receivers along with a low probability of interception elsewhere. While temporal focusing (compression) reduces significantly intersymbol interference (ISI), there always is some residual ISI depending upon the number of transmitters, their spatial distribution (spatial diversity), and the complexity of the channel. Moreover, a slight change in the environment over the two-way propagation interval introduces additional ISI. Using multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) in shallow water, we demonstrate that the performance of time-reversal communications can be improved significantly by cascading the received time series with an adaptive channel equalizer to remove the residual ISI     

Multichannel Detection for Wideband Underwater Acoustic CDMA Communications

Direct-sequence (DS) code-division multiple access (CDMA) is considered for future wideband mobile underwater acoustic networks, where a typical configuration may include several autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) operating within a few kilometers of a central receiver. Two receivers that utilize multichannel (array) processing of asynchronous multiuser signals are proposed: the symbol decision feedback (SDF) receiver and the chip hypothesis feedback (CHF) receiver. Both receivers use a chip-resolution adaptive front end consisting of a many-to-few combiner and a bank of fractionally-spaced feedforward equalizers. In the SDF receiver, feedback equalization is implemented at symbol resolution, and receiver filters, including a decision-directed phase-locked loop, are adapted at the symbol rate. This limits its applicability to the channels whose time variation is slow compared to the symbol rate. In a wideband acoustic system, which transmits at maximal chip rate, the symbol rate is down-scaled by the spreading factor, and an inverse effect may occur by which increasing the spreading factor results in performance degradation. To eliminate this effect, feedback equalization, which is necessary for the majority of acoustic channels, is performed in the CHF receiver at chip resolution and receiver parameters are adjusted at the chip rate. At the price of increased computational complexity (there are as many adaptive filters as there are symbol values), this receiver provides improved performance for systems where time variation cannot be neglected with respect to the symbol rate [e.g., low probability of detection (LPD) acoustic systems]. Performance of the two receivers was demonstrated in a four-user scenario, using experimental data obtained over a 2-km shallow-water channel. At the chip rate of 19.2 kilochips per second (kc/s) with quaternary phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation, excellent results were achieved at an aggregate data rate of up to 10 kb/s     

A Variable-Rate Spread-Spectrum System for Underwater Acoustic Communications

A key research area in underwater acoustic (UWA) communication is the development of advanced modulation and detection schemes for improved performance and range-rate product. In this communication, we propose a variable-rate underwater data transmission system based on direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and complementary code keying (CCK), particularly for shallow-water acoustic channels with severe multipath propagation. We provide a suboptimum receiver that consists of a bidirectional decision feedback equalizer (BiDFE) to cancel both postcursor and precursor intersymbol interference (ISI). We also develop iterative signal processing and time-reversal (TR) diversity processing to mitigate the effect of error propagation in BiDFE. We present performance analysis on bit error rate (BER) for different data rates. Our works show that this new variable-data-rate DSSS-CCK is a suitable candidate for UWA communications over varying channel conditions and distance.      

水声通信中的鲁棒图像编码研究

由于受各种因素的影响，水下声信道是一种传输差错率较高的信道。标准化的图像编码系统(例如JPEC；H．263，MPEG等)使用了相似的压缩技术，它们往往存在严重的错误扩散，甚至单个错误比特就可能破坏整幅图像，所以一般不适合作为水下声信道图像传输的编码方案。文章针对常用的图像编码的缺点，利用定长编码技术，提出了一种高鲁棒性的图像压缩方案。实验表明在压缩率1．25比特／象素时，压缩后的图像仍然保持了较好的质量，并且能够较好地抵抗信道误码，提高了水下声信道图像传输的质量。     

卫星导航系统定位精度评估

对用户等效距离误差结合精度衰减因子（DOP）值的精度评估方法进行了阐述,提出根据单站DOP和全球DOP进行系统定位精度评估的两种方法,仿真证明,两种方法评估结果相当。     

Visually Augmented Navigation for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

As autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are becoming routinely used in an exploratory context for ocean science, the goal of visually augmented navigation (VAN) is to improve the near-seafloor navigation precision of such vehicles without imposing the burden of having to deploy additional infrastructure. This is in contrast to traditional acoustic long baseline navigation techniques, which require the deployment, calibration, and eventual recovery of a transponder network. To achieve this goal, VAN is formulated within a vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) framework that exploits the systems-level complementary aspects of a camera and strap-down sensor suite. The result is an environmentally based navigation technique robust to the peculiarities of low-overlap underwater imagery. The method employs a view-based representation where camera-derived relative-pose measurements provide spatial constraints, which enforce trajectory consistency and also serve as a mechanism for loop closure, allowing for error growth to be independent of time for revisited imagery. This article outlines the multisensor VAN framework and demonstrates it to have compelling advantages over a purely vision-only approach by: 1) improving the robustness of low-overlap underwater image registration; 2) setting the free gauge scale; and 3) allowing for a disconnected camera-constraint topology.