Project Page Views: [ 824 ]
Project Metadata Element | Details |
Project Title | Marine Sensors for the 21st Century |
Research Area | Water |
Project Acronym | SenseOcean |
Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Mark Bowkett (IE) |
Lead Institution or Organisation | T.E Laboratories Limited |
Lead Country | Ireland |
Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 52.79441, -6.75197 |
Lead Funding Entity | European Commission |
Approximate Project Start Date | 01/10/2013 |
Approximate Project Finishing Date | 30/09/2017 |
Project Website (if any) | www.senseocean.eu |
Links to other Web-based resources | |
Project Keywords | Marine Environemntal Services; Complexity; Monitoring sensors; Cost-effective |
Project Abstract | The marine environment contributes a broad range of benefits to society such as important economic and environmental resources, recreational opportunities and vital transportation routes. However, the vast and complex nature of the world's oceans means that our ability to monitor the health of these sensitive systems is limited. SenseOCEAN brings together the leading sensor developers from academia and industry across Europe to produce state-of-art in-situ ocean biogeochemical sensor technology. It will involve fundamental innovations in analytical sciences, fusing together new techniques for microfabrication, system integration, self-calibration and cost-effective mass production. Monitoring will carried out with the production of a new generation of sensors using lab on a chip, micro electrochemical, optode, and optical sensor technologies. These state-of-art sensors will monitor with the high precision and accuracy all of the following: the oceanic carbonate system, nutrients, the micronutrient iron, oxygen, nitrous oxide, trace metals (specifically the micronutrient iron) together with optically observed parameters including photosynthetically active radiation, particulate organic carbon, Chlorophyll a, primary production, coloured dissolved inorganic matter and transmission. As such, it will quantify, at scientifically relevant performance, all of the major state variables in ocean biogeochemical processes. This system will be small, integrated and suitable for mass production enabling it to be scaled and used on mass deployed platforms such as the profiling float array (Argo). This project will develop an innovative cost-effective product that will be readily available for mass production. It will advance research of Ocean health by measuring biogeochemical parameter with cost effective sensor packages that can be mass produced for deployment worldwide. The production of sensor packages will have a major impact on the ability of EU SMEs and industry to compete in the growing market of environmental metrology and networked ecosystems. |