Automatic Profiling System for Underice Measurements

The article is devoted to the development of an autonomous profiling system for measuring the aquatic environment under ice. The system moves up and down in the water column along a cable with a load at the lower end, which is lowered into a lane in the ice. The system carrier is designed for transporting an acoustic Doppler current profiler and a salinity, temperature, and pressure probe. The system will be useful for long-term measurements of vertical profiles of the current speed and marine environment parameters, as well as ice draft. The article describes in detail the structure and operation of the system. The hydraulic scheme of the carrier buoyancy system is presented.

     

Subsatellite polygon for studying hydrophysical processes in the Black Sea shelf-slope zone

The first data on the creation of the subsatellite polygon on the Black Sea shelf and continental slope in the Gelendzhik area (designed in order to permanently monitor the state of the aquatic environment and biota) and the plans for maintaining and developing this polygon are presented. The autonomous measuring systems of the polygon in the composition of bottom stations with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), Aqualog robotic profilers, and thermo-chains on moored buoy stations should make it possible to regularly obtain hydrophysical, hydrochemical, and bio-optical data with a high spatial-time resolution and transmit these data to the coastal center on a real-time basis. These field data should be used to study the characteristics and formation mechanisms of the marine environment and biota variability, as well as the water-exchange processes in the shelf-deep basin system, ocean-atmosphere coupling, and many other processes. These data are used to calibrate the satellite measurements and verify the water circulation numerical simulation. It is assumed to use these data in order to warn about the hazardous natural phenomena and control the marine environment state and its variation under the action of anthropogenic and natural factors, including climatic trends. It is planned to use the polygon subsatellite monitoring methods and equipment in other coastal areas, including other Black Sea sectors, in order to create a unified system for monitoring the Black Sea shelf-slope zone.     

Autonomous system for vertical profiling of the marine environment at a moored station

This paper presents new results of the research and development project on the moored profiler Aqualog aimed at multidisciplinary studies and ecological monitoring of the marine environment. The data on the profiler’s operation are summarized based upon the field experiments in the northeastern Black Sea in 2011. An important scientific result obtained by using the profiler during the experiments was the discovery of the countercurrent below the Black Sea Rim Current in the layer between the 500 m and 900 m depth.     

Akvazond moored automatic measuring system for vertical profiling of the marine medium

The design and application of the Akvazond moored automatic water profiling system is described. The system was developed at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The system is designed for multidisciplinary oceanological studies and environmental monitoring on the sea shelves and continental slopes. An autonomous carrier (marine elevator) for different oceanic measuring equipment was developed for the first time in the practice of Russian oceanography. It is a carrier, for example, for an acoustic Doppler current meter, a CTD-profiler, a sensor of dissolved oxygen, a fluorometer, a turbidity meter, etc. The Akvazond system has an energy resource sufficient for profiling the water column in the programming regime for up to several months. The total length of the vertical displacement of the system at a nominal capacity of the power supply reaches 200 km. The main results of the field tests of the Akvazond and preliminary scientific results of its application are presented on the basis of the results of the Black Sea-2006 expedition.