Title: Ocean observing: from abyssal cabled systems to gliders
Reporter: Bruce M. Howe
Time: Apr. 26, 10:00-12:00AM
Address: Conference Room on the 4th Floor of the Old Building of Institute of Mechatronic Control Engineering
Abstract:
Significant advances are continuing in the infrastructure and tools for ocean observing. The author will describe some examples from his own experience, including the ALOHA Cabled Observatory (ACO), Wave Gliders and Seagliders. ACO, north of Hawaii at 4728 m water depth has now been operational nearly two years delivering acoustic, temperature, velocity, and other data. Temperature data clearly show cold overflow events and subsequent “sloshing”, events that would be aliased by conventional ship measurements. Wave Gliders are a new surface vehicle platform; one application is to serve as a navigation/communications gateway to subsea platforms. Recent results using acoustic Seagliders flying within a 700-km a tomography array in PhilSea10 demonstrate the ability to position mobile platforms within 100 m or better.
Bruce M. Howe:
Bruce M. Howe, Research Professor and Chair
Ocean and Resources Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, USA
Bruce M. Howe received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and the M.S. degrees in Engineering Science in 1978 from Stanford University, CA, and the Ph.D. degree in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, in 1986. From 1986 to 2008, he worked at the Applied Physics Laboratory and involved in cabled seafloor observatories, specifically the NEPTUNE project focused on the Juan de Fuca Plate, and integrating acoustics systems into ocean observatories on all scales, from meters to basin-scale. Now he is presently a Professor in the Ocean and Resources Engineering Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His research interests include Ocean Observatories, Ocean Acoustic Tomography, Sensor webs including mobile platforms, navigation, and communications, Ambient Sound in the Ocean, Atmospheric and Ionospheric Tomography.