The future of chemical in situ sensors

Many of the sampling methods used in oceanographic sciences today date back decades, if not centuries. Although there has been a marked change in how sampling for chemical oceanography is carried out it still relies on taking samples of seawater from a research vessel in most cases. Assessing processes on small timescales as well as transient events requires higher temporal and spatial resolution of measurements; long time series stations require high duration deployments of instruments. Both requirements can only be adequately satisfied by in situ sensors; for the physical parameters off the shelf instruments are available, in the field of chemical oceanography only a few parameters, such as oxygen, are covered by off the shelf instruments, for most parameters adequate instrumentation only exists in the form of prototypes, if at all. Chemical in situ sensors are needed to gain new insights in how the oceans and the life in it works.