Cost-Effective Technologies to Study the Arctic Ocean Environment †

Abstract

The Arctic region is known to be severely affected by climate change, with evident alterations in both physical and biological processes. Monitoring the Arctic Ocean ecosystem is key to understanding the impact of natural and human-induced change on the environment. Large data sets are required to monitor the Arctic marine ecosystem and validate high-resolution satellite observations (e.g., Sentinel), which are necessary to feed climatic and biogeochemical forecasting models. However, the Global Observing System needs to complete its geographic coverage, particularly for the harsh, extreme environment of the Arctic Region. In this scenario, autonomous systems are proving to be valuable tools for increasing the resolution of existing data. To this end, a low-cost, miniaturized and flexible probe, ArLoC (Arctic Low-Cost probe), was designed, built and installed on an innovative unmanned marine vehicle, the PROTEUS (Portable RObotic TEchnology for Unmanned Surveys), during a preliminary scientific campaign in the Svalbard Archipelago within the UVASS project. This study outlines the instrumentation used and its design features, its preliminary integration on PROTEUS and its test results.

Digital technology risk reduction mechanisms to enhance ecological and human safety in the northern sea route for oil and gas companies

“…These technologies are highly adaptable and can decrease risk and increase safety in a variety of operating areas, from operations to E3S Web of Conferences 258, 06047 (2021) UESF-2021 https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202125806047 disposal and transportation. Low cost oceanographic probes like ArLoC (Arctic Low Cost Probe) have been deployed on the Proteus platform with great success and accuracy [11,12]. This model identifies several risks factors, assigns them a weight, proposes an equation to measure risk, and modifies this risk by reducing risk factors to propose a full risk assessment that accounts for risk more accurately than previous models.…”

Monitoring of Sea-Ice-Atmosphere Interface in the Proximity of Arctic Tidewater Glaciers: The Contribution of Marine Robotics

“…The USSV PROTEUS was equipped with the following sensing/sampling package: Underwater video-camera; led lights; GoPro camera; Tritech Micron echosounder for acquiring bathymetric data; Idronaut Ocean Seven 305 CTD multiprobe sensor for acquiring water physical parameters; small prototype sensor for measuring pressure, temperature, and fluorescence of chlorophyll named ArLoC, developed by Tuscia University [41,42]; and Turner Cyclops-7 turbidity sensor. All these sensors were synchronised and geolocalised thanks to real-time integration with the telemetry of PROTEUS.…”

“…ArLoC (Arctic Low-Cost probe) is the tool for the acquisition of parameters relating to sea water designed by the University of Tuscia to be flexible, adaptable, low cost, and equipped with sensors for depth, temperature, and chlorophyll-a fluorescence. It was also used in the 2017 campaign where its reliability was evaluated by a comparison with "state-of-the-art" CTDs and by means of remote sensing data from Sentinel-2 [42]. The management of the underwater winch was performed by using an altimeter to prevent the possibility of the grounding and deadlock of the sensors.…”

Devices for Environmental Observations

“…Another version, derived from the previous, but customized to work in Arctic harsh environment and able to fill eight 500 ml bottles, was developed in 2015 and used during oceanographic cruises at the Svalbard Islands, hosted on a small catamaran towed by an unmanned surface vehicle [22], [23]. The use of a towed vehicle enabled to study the icewater interface going very near to glaciers, where falling ice blocks would be dangerous to manned boats [24]. This version of water sampler incorporates a control computer, similar to those above described.…”