Development of New Observational and Navigation Capabilities for the Rapid Autonomous Surface Vehicle System for Submesoscale Air-Sea Interaction Research (RASVS)
Abstract
Ocean fronts and related submesoscale processes at the air-sea interface are of growing Naval interest in oceanography and marine atmospheric science. They are regions where the oceanic and atmospheric boundary layers depart from the usual boundary-layer assumptions that vertical gradients in the relevant variables (e.g., currents, wind speed, temperature, gas concentration, biogeochemical variables) may be much larger than the horizontal gradients, and so can involve much horizontal and vertical mixing and upwelling and downwelling. They are also regions where wave-current interaction can lead to significant wave breaking with concomitant increases in bubble-mediated gas transfer, ambient noise and momentum flux from waves to currents that could significantly impact acoustic and electromagnetic propagation. Thus, to measure these processes in the Surface Ocean and Lower Atmosphere (SOLA) requires combined in situ measurements on both sides of the air-sea interface at scales where regular research vessels interfere with the flows and measurements. Last year, to address this problem, Melville and Lenain were funded (ONR FY19 DURIP) to develop a faster autonomous platform, the Rapid Autonomous Surface Vehicle System for Submesoscale Air-Sea Interaction Research (RASVS). It is a fast (up to 10kts), shorter endurance (7-10 days) unmanned system vehicle instrumented for air-sea interaction research capable of both surface and subsurface measurements, and atmospheric sampling, using a meteorological bow mast and a tethered multicopter instrument. It is based on the L3/ASV Global C-Worker 5 autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). We are proposing to improve the present RASVS capabilities, enhancing both its autonomy, through hardware and software upgrades to provide improved situational awareness and automated collision avoidance ability, along with additional ocean and atmospheric sensing capabilities, to better resolve the marine atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 20, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912657
Entities
People
- Ken Melville
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego