Low Cost/Accessible Ocean Technology

Low cost and accessible sensors are designed to lower barriers to development and deployment of sensors to better fill data gaps and broaden the use of a variety of sensors. Data that are dense in space and time can improve the forecasting capability of ocean circulation modelers, provide timely guidance to residents and communities, and better represent local conditions.  Lower cost or accessible ocean technologies enable more sensors to be deployed in more locations for longer times.  

New low-cost dissolved oxygen (DO) sensors deployed in crab pots will yield expanded near-real time data, allowing the fishing community and managers to monitor low-oxygen conditions in order to identify when to pull crab pots or the best areas to place them. 

A deep-diving, low-cost Deep Ocean Research & Imaging System (DORIS) will lower the financial and technical barriers to deep-sea exploration and research.The high degree of flexibility and ease of use gives users the freedom to create a technological solution that meets their unique needs. DORIS can also integrate with artificial intelligence-driven data processing tools for video and sensor data aggregation, analysis, and archiving to accelerate the pace of discovery for users.

Another project will pilot, improve, and bring to market a new surface dissolved carbon dioxide sensor — the pCO2 to Go — capable of making rapid, in-field measurements during sargassum inundation events. Additionally, the project will streamline elements of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) in a Box Kit, a suite of equipment designed by The Ocean Foundation that enables weather-quality carbon chemistry measurements, to make this system more easily accessed and maintained by researchers.

FY24

An in situ system for combined pH and alkalinity measurements

Development & Implementation of a Low-cost Modular Ocean Discovery System (new in FY24)

Assessing the emerging threat of sargassum inundation on coastal carbonate chemistry in the U.S. Caribbean by streamlining and operationalizing observing technologies

FY23

Validating the Aqusens imaging platform to expand networked cell detection capabilities (new in FY23)

Fishing for Hypoxia: An Academic-Industry-Tribal Partnership to Observe the Coastal Ocean

A Proposal to Scale from a Regional to a National Webcam Coastal Observation System (WebCOOS)

FY21

Internet of Things in the Deep: Automating the collection of oceanographic data with smarter fishing vessels

FY20

Launching WebCOOS: Webcams for Coastal Observations and Operational Support