Plain English Oceanography: Insight into the Surface Layer of the Ocean During a Storm

/in /by

Evolution of Oceanic Near-Surface Stratification in Response to an Autumn Storm

Natasha S. Lucas, Alan L. M. Grant, Tom P. Rippeth, Jeff A. Polton, Matthew R. Palmer, Liam Brannigan, Stephen E. Belcher

  • Journal of Physical Oceanography, November 2019, American Meteorological Society
  • DOI: 10.1175/jpo-d-19-0007.1

What is it about?

Why are we interested in the surface of the ocean? The surface of the ocean is the interface between the ocean interior and atmosphere. Heat, gases and momentum are exchanged at this boundary, this has implications on weather and climate.

How did we measure it?

We went out to the North Atlantic, off the continental shelf, in September 2012 for a month. We deployed an Ocean Microstructure Glider (yup, known as OMG!!). This instrument is pretty new and pretty special!

Keep Reading>> 

Rockland Scientific Partners with Big Blue Ocean Cleanup to Offset Ocean Waste

/in /by
Rockland is pleased to announce a corporate partnership with Big Blue Ocean Cleanup (BBOC), one of the world’s leading independent ocean cleanup non-profit foundations.  BBOC prevents and removes ocean pollution to minimise the effects of human development. At Ocean Business 2019, Rockland kicks off an annual donation pledge to BBOC. In April, Rockland transferred £20 for every instrument shipped in the 2018 calendar year.


As a specialist in the design and manufacture of oceanographic research instrumentation, Rockland plays an active role in better understanding of the world’s oceans.  At the same time, Rockland recognizes the life-cycle impacts of their products, which are the result of the operational nature of ocean research instruments and the challenging conditions in which they are deployed and recovered.


Rockland has made significant efforts to minimize its ocean impact, acknowledging two potential sources of ocean waste: i) discarded ballast weights from autonomous deep-sea profilers and ii) instruments lost at sea.  To mitigate the effects of the intentionally dropped ballast weights, Rockland has designed them to be made entirely of ferrous metal, which will oxidize in the ocean water. To minimize equipment loss, Rockland incorporates safety factors in the equipment design, and provides operational training to its customers.


“Partnering with Big Blue Ocean Cleanup is aligned with Rockland’s vision of ocean stewardship, and our efforts to minimize the life cycle effects of our instruments” says Rockland President, Dr. Fabian Wolk, “…and similar to our customers, Big Blue values scientific research and technology development, and is active in all of the world’s oceans.”


About Rockland Scientific: Rockland is dedicated to the measurement of turbulence in oceans, rivers, lakes and laboratories.  Their measurement systems comprise of ship-board profilers as well as modular sensor payloads for deployment from gliders, floats, and moorings. They accurately detect turbulence levels, from the most energetic tidal channel down to the deep ocean.
Image Caption: An Oceanographer Successfully Recovers a Rockland Turbulence Profiler
About Big Blue Ocean Cleanup: BBOC is an international non-profit foundation that is cleaning the oceans and coastlines.  BBOC’s mission is to drive positive change towards clean oceans and coastlines that support all marine wildlife and sustainable living.  Big Blue Ocean Cleanup works to prevent and cleanup ocean pollution and to minimise disturbance from human development and climate change.

Ocean Business 2019 provides timely training opportunity for Rockland Scientific

/in /by
SOUTHAMPTON, UK, April 16, 2019 – Ocean Business 2019 provided Rockland Scientific with the opportunity to deliver a timely and pertinent training session to the National Oceanography Centre.  Dr. Matthew Palmer, Chief Scientist at NOC Liverpool, leads a research expedition this June to Tanzania. Supported by NOC researcher Dr. Juliane Wihsgott, the team will carry out turbulence measurements involving a novel sampling approach with Rockland’s equipment.
The NOC scientists will perform a rapid samping underway transect from a small boat using a VMP-250 turbulence profiler with a rapid recovery system.  These measurements will provide data for the study of nutrient fluxes that support artisanal fisheries in Zanzibar and are part of the SOLSTICE-WIO programme funded by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund.

 

The NOC has recently appointed Dr. Palmer as Chief Scientist to lead on its Science Community Engagement program, aimed at promoting and enhancing collaboration between NOC’s Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) engineering group and the marine science community.

Dr. Wihsgott receiving training from Rockland Field Technician Evan Cervelli at the NOC Marine Robotics Innovation Centre.
About Rockland Scientific: Rockland is dedicated to the measurement of turbulence in oceans, rivers, lakes and laboratories.  Their measurement systems comprise of ship-board profilers as well as modular sensor payloads for deployment from gliders, floats, and moorings. They accurately detect turbulence levels, from the most energetic tidal channel down to the deep ocean.
—
About the National Oceanography Centre: NOC engages in research covering a range of oceanographic disciplines to further understand the complex nature of the ocean. One such research area is the study of marine physics and ocean climate, which focuses on the fundamental physical processes in the marine environment and their connection with, and influence on, the rest of the Earth system. This research spans microscopic to global scales, extends from the coast to the abyssal ocean, and includes boundary layer interactions with both the atmosphere and the seabed.

Rockland To Supply Three 6000m Rated Vertical Microstructure Turbulence Profilers to UK, Japan, Norway

/in /by

SOUTHAMPTON, UK, April 09, 2019 – Rockland Scientific has been contracted to supply three VMP-6000 profilers to NOC Southampton (UK), the University of Tokyo (Japan) and the University of Bergen (Norway). The demand for such instrumentation highlights the increasing importance of deep-sea turbulence observations. Two VMP-6000s have already been delivered, while the third profiler will be shipped to Norway in May.

The VMP-6000 is a robotic, full ocean-depth (6000m) profiling system for measurement of turbulence microstructure, CTD, and other oceanographic parameters. The unique capability of the VMP-6000 to measure the smallest turbulence signals in the abyssal oceans provides the researchers at these institutions with a tool to study deep-ocean dynamics and mixing, and their connection with larger scale processes such as climate change.

Once delivered, the VMP-6000s will augment an existing suite of turbulence measurement instrumentation at these institutions, including coastal profilers and modular sensor packages integrated with ocean gliders and AUVs.

A VMP-6000 deployed from a NOC Southampton research vessel. 

 

About Rockland Scientific: Rockland is dedicated to the measurement of turbulence in oceans, rivers, lakes and laboratories. Their measurement systems comprise of ship-board profilers as well as modular sensor payloads for deployment from gliders, floats, and moorings. They accurately detect turbulence levels, from the most energetic tidal channel down to the deep ocean.

About the National Oceanography Centre: NOC engages in research covering a range of oceanographic disciplines to further understand the complex nature of the ocean. One such research area is the study of marine physics and ocean climate, which focuses on the fundamental physical processes in the marine environment and their connection with, and influence on, the rest of the Earth system. This research spans microscopic to global scales, extends from the coast to the abyssal ocean, and includes boundary layer interactions with both the atmosphere and the seabed.

The Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI) was established in the University of Tokyo by a merger of the Ocean Research Institute and the Center Of Climate System Research in 2010. The Ocean Circulation Section is engaged in physical research based mainly on observations by research vessels in order to reveal various phenomena in the ocean, including deep ocean circulation and mixing.

About University of Bergen, Geophysical Institute (GFI): GFI is a leading institute in the Nordic countries in the field of observational oceanography. The institute’s research strategy rests upon use of cutting-edge measurement techniques in combination with theoretical studies and modelling. Studies on key ocean processes and their interactions encompass spatial scales from millimetre scales, relevant for ice freezing, turbulence and mixing, up to the large scale ocean circulation.

VMP-250 Allows Danish Researchers to Observe how Turbulence and Vertical Mixing Affect Nutrient Flux Processes in Northeastern North Sea

/in /by

Dr. Jørgen Bendtsen, ClimateLab Denmark., Professor Katherine Richardson, Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen.

 

Deployment of the VMP-250 from the R/V Dana in the North Sea, July 2016. The instrument is deployed ~5 m from the free-drifting ship, and after it has been lowered to the surface the line is released and it sinks freely through the water column.

 

The ClimateLab and University of Copenhagen purchased a VMP-250 coastal turbulence profiler and Jørgen attended instrument training at Rockland Scientific in June 2016.  Shortly after, Jørgen used the instrument as part of a nutrient flux study in the North Sea.  The ClimateLab and U Copenhagen team collected turbulence data from the VMP-250 and analyzed the potential for vertical mixing, which can transport nutrients, such as nitrate, which support primary production throughout the column. The findings were published last month in the paper Turbulence measurements suggest high rates of new production over the shelf edge in the northeastern North Sea during the summer  in the Biogeosiences Journal.

 

The key finding of this research paper was based on measurements taken in the northeastern North Sea. During the stratified summer season a deep chlorophyll maximum was found at the bottom of the nutrient depleted surface layer (~20 m). Observations with the VMP-250 along transects across the shelf edge towards the deep northern North Sea (>500 m) showed enhanced vertical mixing at the bottom of the nutricline above the shelf edge. Diapycnal turbulent nitrate fluxes were estimated from turbulence measurements and nutrient samples and showed enhanced new production above the shelf edge area. Overall, this suggests that the shelf-edge zone may be the major nutrient supplier to the euphotic zone in this area during the period of summer stratification.

 

These findings will have impacts on fisheries, aquaculture, and ecological conservation efforts and policy.  Dr. Bendtsen and Professor Richardson’s success with the VMP-250 has resulted in some additional funding to add a fluorometer/turbidity sensor to their VMP-250 instrument.  This is good news for Rockland and their customer base as Jørgen is well positioned to perform novel science with high resolution measurements of chlorophyll-a and turbidity taken very close to the shear probes.

 

 

 

 

Ocean Turbulence Workshop in South Africa Lead by Rockland Microstructure Specialists

/in , /by

 

“UKZN’s Department of Civil Engineering held the first ever workshop on Ocean Turbulence in South Africa.

The workshop was facilitated by Derek Stretch, Professor for Environmental Fluid Mechanics, with funding provided through an Office of Naval Research (ONR) global grant.

Turbulence at microstructure scales (a centimetre or less) is an important mechanism for mixing in the ocean where regions of enhanced turbulence can influence the entire marine food web. Turbulence is, however, difficult to measure and requires very sensitive and specialised equipment and highly skilled scientists to process and interpret the data.” Read More

 

Rockland and Alseamar Show Results of the Partnership Signed at Oceanology Intl. 2016.

/in /by

London, UK, March 13, 2018 – Rockland and Alseamar are proud to show the results of their recent partnership.  At the previous OI 2016, both companies agreed on a joint R&D program to develop a turbulence sensor payload for the Alseamar SeaExplorer glider.  The first customer conducted successful deployments with the sensor payload, the MicroRider-SE, on the SeaExplorer in June and winter of 2017. At OI 2018, a demonstration model of glider and sensor payload will be on display at the Alseamar stand.

In June 2017, a research team from the Atmosphere & Ocean Research Institute (AORI) of the University of Tokyo successfully deployed a SeaExplorer in the Kuroshio current, collecting microstructure turbulence data, amongst other parameters. The SeaExplorer was able to smoothly navigate in one of the strongest current on Earth, with surface velocities sometimes up to four knots, with a large sensor payload. In addition to the flight dynamics, the one litre buoyancy engine of the SeaExplorer proved helpful when facing strong density gradients.

AORI’s SeaExplorer is fitted with the MicroRider-SE payload (for turbulence), a Nortek Signature ADCP (for currents), a WetLabs Triplet (for Chlorophyll-a, Turbidity and CDOM), as well as a CT sensor and a Rinko optical DO sensor (from JFE Advantech, for temperature, salinity and oxygen).

Major innovations for the SeaExplorer MicroRider-SE turbulence package are the low footprint integration of the microstructure probes in the front nose cone of the glider and the addition of an EM current sensor (velocimeter) to directly measure the axial speed of the glider.

Data collected are now being processed by AORI team with ROCKLAND support, and are part of a wider study on turbulent mixing generated by the Kuroshio current.

Figure 1 : The AORI SeaExplorer’s path along the Kuroshio current
(red pins are waypoints the glider was asked to follow / white pins are actual glider surfacings)

 

Figure 2 : The MicroRider-SE (MR-SE) payload for SeaExplorer, a joint development between AORI, ALSEAMAR and Rockland Scientific

 

Figure 3 : The SeaExplorer from AORI

Boaty McBoatface uses MicroRider to observe mixing under 600m thick ice shelf in the Antarctic

/in /by


“Boaty McBoatface” has executed its most daring dive yet.

The nation’s favourite yellow submarine swam under a near-600m thick ice shelf in the Antarctic, returning safely to its launch ship after 48 hours away.

It was an important test for the novel autonomous vehicle, which was developed at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

Boaty’s handlers now plan even more arduous expeditions for the sub in the years ahead. Read More

InSTREAM Project Characterizes and Models Turbulence from Tank Test to Tidal Channel

/in , /by

The recently completed InSTREAM project assessed fundamental differences in turbulent flow measured in the field, generated in a tank and simulated in a numerical model

To mitigate the risk and uncertainty associated with turbulent flows in tidal channels, developers often use tank experiments and numerical simulations to assess the power and loading performance of a turbine. However, it remains unclear if these controlled flows can be accurately scaled up to represent the natural turbulence present in tidal channels.

The InSTREAM project compared numerical simulations (centre) that represented measured turbulent flow regimes in the field (left) and in the laboratory (right).

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The difficulty in translating between model, tank and field environments motivated the In-Situ Turbulence Replication, Evaluation And Measurement (InSTREAM) project. The three-year project was conducted by a research consortium comprising six commercial and academic entities in the UK and Canada. The project was given the prestigious EUREKA designation, and was co-funded by the Offshore Energy Research Association and InnovateUK. More information can be found on the Eureka project page

OBJECTIVES
The main goal of the InSTREAM project was to determine the appropriate scaling between the turbulent flow conditions in a tank and in a tidal channel, so that numerical simulations of such
flows can be used to estimate uncertainties on turbine performance. The project included the development of a sensor system that combined acoustic (Doppler), and non-acoustic (electro-magnetic and shear probe) technology to create a system that could be used in both laboratory and field applications. The system was successfully deployed at the FloWaveTT Energy Research Facility and in the Minas Passage, Bay of Fundy. Numerical simulations – representing the measured tank and field conditions – were then performed.

KEY OUTCOMES
As expected, the InSTREAM project found significant differences between the turbulence characteristics in the tank and in the field. The 3D eddies observed in the field were, in relative terms, about three times larger than those generated in the tank, resulting in considerable differences in power and fatigue loading. A scaling method has been developed to allow direct comparison and translation between the two flow regimes. This scaling greatly increases the usefulness of tank testing and numerical modeling, and can be reproduced for other test tanks. It also allows site-specific field measurements to be translated to tank experiments, enabling numerical models (validated by tank experiments) to be used for reliable and realistic estimation of turbine and array performance.