Instrumentation Viewpoint

The Role of networked robotic systems to survey coastal phenomena: the Douro river plume case study

Renato Mendes

Propagation of river plumes along the coast strongly depends on several physical processes, which determine the plume fate over the shelf. The Douro is one of the largest rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, representing the most important freshwater input into the Atlantic Ocean on the northwestern Portuguese coast. Traditional methods of in situ measurements are often complicated and expensive due to the high spatial and temporal variability of its dominant drivers. By now, the general dispersion patterns of the Douro River Plume was mostly studied by numerical models and remote sensing imagery, considering the main drivers involved: river discharge, wind, and tide. From those results, the Douro River plume is classified as large-scale and surface-advected, presenting characteristics of a prototypical plume. The wind was found to play an essential role in the plume dispersion and fate. For example, southerly winds increase the velocity of the northward current, frequently merging the Douro plume with the northerly generated Minho plume. Both riverine water masses can propagate to the Rias Baixas (Spain), dramatically changing their normal circulation. By these reasons, the development of accurate and reliable plume monitoring systems is an important and challenging task. This work reports the recent use of robotic systems (AUVs and UAVs) to detect, track and survey the Douro Plume front autonomously. These systems can survey this highly dynamic environment and characterize the frontal regions of the plume regarding salinity, water temperature, turbidity, and chlorophyll concentrations under summer conditions when the plume area is small and mainly tidally driven. Results from several frontal crossings, coincident with satellite imagery acquisitions (some of which were obtained in near real-time by the new Sentinel-2 mission), demonstrated the AUVs capability to fairly detect the front structure. Cross-frontal exchanges observed in the water column by AUVs along the front emphasize the importance of new technologies use on the monitoring and detection of high spatial and temporal dynamical phenomena such as river plumes.

Tools for deep-sea navigation

Eduardo Silva

The SIDENAV and DEEPFLOAT innitiatives aims to develop a demonstrator that validates and apply technology that enables golds between the exploitation of mineral resources in deep-sea waters under Portuguese jurisdiction (for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). The Portuguese Sea is characterized by a high depth, and many natural resources are at depths greater. This makes it difficult or even hinders its exploitation through either autonomous or even through tele-operated systems use. Sustainable industrial exploitation of these marine resources require the ability to have deep sea to surface transport systems with high accuracy navigation capabilities at sustainable costs. Underwater operations are carried out by dedicated systems and for the most part with the use of ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) and AUV’s (autonomous underwater vehicles) operated from a ship or a land base station. These systems are used in a wide variety of tasks, such as, installation of equipment and maintenance in the offshore industry O&G (Oil and Gas), in the inspection of pipelines, underwater data lines, underwater observatories, power generation systems, underwater mining, as well as, the collection of information for a wide range of activities with great economic value. The movement in the water column, descent and ascent, are typically performed by buoyancy control or by conventional underwater thrusters (electric motors with propellers) using the localized movements/behaviours (such as hovering and faster manoeuvres) when necessary. The payload capacity requirements and task performance without the need for outside intervention, low power consumption and the high depth are very demanding. Based on the problem presented in the preceding paragraphs, the primary goal of the project is to develop hybrid variable ballast systems. In order to extend the range of possible operations to be held in high external pressure environments, reducing energy consumption by maximizing payload capacity and fine control in confined environments such as mining in mines with high groundwater levels (typically submerged operation). This type of system can be used in various types of underwater vehicles (AUV’s, Landers or ROV’s) or for the transport of materials or tools in the open sea or other freshwater environments. The proposed concept in this project consists of a flexible variable ballast system for deep underwater applications with advanced control capabilities. This system consists of a component that allows varying the buoyancy of a wide range of vehicles and systems for operation in the ocean environment, at different depths up to 1000m. Allows variation of buoyancy, for vehicles buoyancy trimming systems, or to change of direction of the vehicle with changes in buoyancy, and, more significantly to perform the ascend/descent motion control in the water column in an efficiently manner.

A survey on automatic habitat mapping

André Diegues

Habitat mapping can help assess the health of an ecosystem but the task is not always straightforward as, depending on the environment to be mapped, data types can be very different, such as marine and land habitats where in one case you can use sonar images and in the other satellite pictures. In this survey we explore works that used machine learning models when performing habitat mapping.

Design, validation and manufacturing of an anthropomorphic manipulator for rovs using titanium rapid prototyping

P. Iglesias

It is at least two decades since the conventional robotic manipulators have become a common manufacturing tool for different industries, from automotive to pharmaceutical. The advances in manipulators and sensors have given robots the opportunity to become useful for more and more applications. Engineers have taken advantage of the extra mobility of the advanced robots to make them work in constrained environments, ranging from limited joint motions for redundant manipulators to obstacles in the way of mobile (ground, marine, and aerial) robots [1]. However, the incorporation some of these abilities and capacities that are already being used in land, have not made their way to the sea domain. This Abstract describes the project consisting in the design, development and manufacture of a prototype manipulator arm for ROVs introducing innovative fabrication technologies. The work has been done collaboratively among ACSM Maritime Agency SL, CIMA Group and the University of Vigo.

Design, manufacturing and set-up tests of a wave energy converter prototype in the context of the European Project LIFE-Demowave

A. Arias

LifeDemoWave Project is a real case of development of a R&D project, from the initial idea to the final construction and installation of a prototype for testing in operational environment. This project was born from an idea of the main researcher of the CIMA Group that finally led to two patents of two wave generation systems. Based on these patents, CIMA sought different ways for funding with the aim of developing prototypes with a high TRL and being able to test the operating principle of the patented systems. Finally, funding was obtained through the Life Program of the European Union and in collaboration with five other partners. The main objective of the LifeDemoWave project (http://www. life-demowave.eu/en/) is the demonstration of the feasibility of the use of wave power for electric generation in order to reduce greenhouse gases' emissions. For demonstration purposes, prototypes of wave power generation, reproducible and scalable at high level, are installed in the Galician coast. LifeDemoWave project considers, as well as its design and implementation, the environmental impact in the installation areas and its effect on biodiversity.

Feasibility analysis of energy harvesting with piezoelectric devices in oceano graphic buoys

Begoña Pozo Fernández

This document shows the study carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of using piezoelectric devices in oceanographic buoys, as generators of electric power for feeding the buoy system. One of the basic problems in an application of this type is to supply electrical power to the systems of the buoy. But the realisation of prototypes and especially their test in real conditions, for their validation, are extremely expensive. Therefore, a good solution is to demonstrate, previously, the viability of the system. This requires real data on movements, accelerations, etc., but in this particular case, these data are available for carrying out previous R & D projects that have given rise to developments that are currently located on operational oceanographic buoys. . With all this we have been able to carry out a study that demonstrates the interest of this technology.

Litterdrone: marine litter characterization using dron

Fernando Martín Rodríguez

This communication is about “LitterDrone” project. LitterDrone is funded via the Blue-Labs program of the European commission and it aims to make a contribution to solve the problem of marine litter. Part of this problem is monitoring stranded marine litter on beaches (measuring number and type of litter elements). Monitoring results can be used to infer data on litter origin and on the influence of tides, currents and human activity. OSPAR convention [1] is a joint European initiative that tries to unify forces against marine pollution. Part of this convention implies that contracting parties (countries) must monitor periodically stranded marine litter on beaches. Spain has signed the convention in January 1994. Litter monitoring in Spain is nowadays implemented by human personnel counting (& picking) litter items in certain beaches at certain times (4 campaigns each year, one for each season). LitterDrone project aims to create a new and/or complementary methodology based on obtaining images from drone flights (creating orthomosaics of RGB and multiespectral images) and developing software to analyze such images to obtain results comparable to those of the manual sampling.

Studying the Pacific Subtropical Front with multiple assets

José Pinto

We describe a novel approach to physical oceanography by coordinating remote sensing, multiple autonomous vehicles and ship borne sensors. In contrast with conventional oceanography where ships are the single point of sampling in the middle of a big ocean or are used simply as the base of operations from where autonomous vehicles are deployed, we propose a new approach where ship and autonomous vehicles are coordinated together via satellite communications. We conclude with results and lessons learned from a real-world deployment of the R/V Falkor oceanographic ship together with multiple autonomous vehicles to study the Pacific's Subtropical Front, 800 miles off the coast of San Diego.

Fast underwater color correction using integral images

László Neumann

Underwater image processing has to face the problem of loss of color and contrast that occurs when images are acquired at a certain depth and range. The longer wavelengths of sunlight such as red or orange are rapidly absorbed by the water body, while the shorter ones have a higher scattering. Thereby, at larger distance, the scene colors appear bluish-greenish, as well as blurry. The loss of color increases not only vertically through the water column, but also horizontally, so that the subjects further away from the camera appear colorless and indistinguishable, suffering from lack of visible details. This paper presents a fast enhancement method for color correction of underwater images. The method is based on the gray-world assumption applied in the Ruderman-opponent color space and is able to cope with non-uniformly illuminated scenes. Integral images are exploited by the proposed method to perform fast color correction, taking into account locally changing luminance and chrominance. Due to the low-complexity cost this method is suitable for real-time applications ensuring realistic colors of the objects, more visible details and enhanced visual quality.

REP18 Atlantic: a large scale exercise using unmanned systems

Paulo Sousa Dias

We present the REP18 exercise in which were operated heterogeneous unmanned underwater and aerial vehicles. This large scale exercise organized together with the PO Navy and with the participation of key players in the area, served to test the large scale use of unmanned vehicles in real-world operations both in defence and scientific areas. This work showcases how the LSTS Toolchain for Autonomous Systems enables all this.

Ripples: a tool for supervision and control of remote assets

José Pinto

We describe the Ripples cloud-based software for coordination and control of multiple remote assets. Ripples can ingest and disseminate data coming from multiple sources such as physical models, drifting sensors, marine traffic (AIS) and unmanned vehicles deployed in remote areas. On top of data dissemination and awareness, Ripples can also be used for planning the autonomous assets using satellite communications, maintaining the operators in the loop.

The new iteration of the wavy drifter (MELOA)

Pedro Gonçalves

The MELOA (Multi-purpose/Multi-sensor Extra Light Oceanography Apparatus), H2020 project, proposes to develop a low-cost, easy-to-handle, wave resilient, multi-purpose, multi-sensor, extra light surface drifter for use in all water environments, ranging from deep-sea to inland waters, including coastal areas, river plumes and surf zones. The device will be developed as an upgrade to the WAVY drifter (Figure-1) conceived by the LSTS - Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, which was used to measure the surface circulation forced by wave breaking, including detailed structure of rifts and the littoral drift current. The new iteration of the wavy drifter improves upon the older one by adding new functionality like wave spectrum computation from collected data, and adding sensors such as a Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Atmospheric Pressure Sensor (ATM), a new and improved GNSS modules with new positioning solutions, a new GSM supporting encrypted GPRS connections for real-time data transmission as well as more internal memory. Furthermore a new MCU (Microcontroller Unit) was chosen to integrate all this sensors and data collection and a new firmware package. To adapt to users’ requests and different mission profiles there are five WAVY models available, all with different sensor packages and functionality: Basic and Litoral for coastal operations, Ocean, Ocean ATMO and Ocean Plus for open sea. For the later a Satellite transceiver is used for communication instead of the GSM module, to transmit the results of wave spectrum computation.

Sensor web enablement implementations in marine observation platforms

Enoc Martínez Padró

The study of global phenomena requires the integration of scientific data coming from multiple sources. Data is usually acquired by a wide variety of observation platforms, managed by different institutions and often using non-standardized data and metadata formats. In order to address these issues a generic solution to integrate sensor data into spatial data infrastructures based on the Sensor Web Enablement framework is proposed.

Coastal bathymetry estimation using an ensemble of synthetic aperture radar images from Sentinel-1

L. Lamas

In this study, coastal bathymetry is estimated with a wave ray-tracing algorithm using wave parameters retrieved from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images acquired by the Sentinel-1 satellites. The method relies on the long swell wave’s detection by SAR imagery and the wave’s properties adjustment to the underwater topography, which can be mathematically related using the linear dispersion relation. The ray-tracing algorithm tracks the shoaling waves until the wave breaking zone, using the wavelength and wave direction retrieved from the 2D directional spectra applied at consecutive sub-images. Then, by inverting the linear wave dispersion relationship, the depth is calculated based on the mean wavelength obtained for each sub-image and maintaining the wave period retrieved at the first offshore position, which is computed using a mean depth from an independent bathymetric source. The output of the algorithm is a bathymetric model that results from the interpolation of the depth computed at each tracking position to a uniform grid and the results are compared with bathymetric information from the General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean. The use of a monthly ensemble of SAR images, instead of individual ones, to reproduce the bathymetry near Aveiro, Portugal, resulted in a smoother topography with lower relative errors, suggesting that the final bathymetric model retrieved from SAR should result from a combination of SAR images. The methodology presented here to infer the bathymetry using space-borne SAR imagery can be useful to retrieve the mean bottom topography (especially in remote areas where the traditional hydrographic surveying methods are not performed regularly) and to reproduce new underwater structures, such as banks, reefs or bars, which are important to detect for the safety of navigation.

Autonomous acoustic surveillance system for nearshore soundscaping

Dmytro Maslov

In response to global climate change and growing industry capabilities, researchers are looking for robust and soft engineered solutions for nearshore ecosystems. A newly developed Multifunctional Artificial Reef is capable of performing several functions within one structure, among which is marine ecosystem restoration and the support for various sensors for structural and environmental monitoring. Combining such functionalities, implementation of passive acoustic shows great potential for biodiversity monitoring and colonization process observation of recently deployed artificial structure. Therefore, by integrating moored hydrophone within the artificial reef system and setting recording mode as well as post processing optimization, peculiar features of local marine habitat behaviour will be researched in order to provide better insight on the contribution of these structures for ecosystems preservation.

Harmonisation and dissemination of TSG data from IEO research vessels

Gonzalo González Nuevo

Advances in the harmonisation and dissemination of underway data from research vessels in the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) fleets will be presented.

Wavy operation software: an observation centric system for multi-sensor devices

Carlos Almeida

This communication focuses on the features of the WAVY Operation Software, addressing the needs of research teams in supporting the planning and operation of WAVY drifters in the scope of field research missions. The WAVY Operation Software is planned to be distributed alongside with the WAVY drifters to provide an interactive way of managing the campaign related data, as well as tools for exploratory visualization, cooperative annotation and sharing duly cleansed and curated datasets.

EUSKOOS (Basque Operational Oceanography System): an integrated approach to providing coastal and oceanic information

J. Mader

Deep sea spy: a collaborative annotation tool

M. Matabos

Since 2010, remote hydrothermal ecosystems are continuously being monitored using video cameras deployed on instrumented platforms. The acquisition of high-frequency video data from deep-sea observatories like EMSOAzores or Ocean Networks Canada provide information on species behaviour, feeding habits, growth, reproduction and organisms’ response to changes in environmental conditions. Video cameras acquire hourly data representing thousands of hours and Tera Bytes of footage but their manual processing is time-consuming and highly labour-intensive, and cannot be comprehensively undertaken by individual researchers. In order to help preliminary manual assessment of this huge imagery archive, a free online annotation tool was developed to gather contributions from a wider community. The Deep Sea Spy system offers a fun and engaging web interface to members of the public to help perform initial footage annotations. The platform now hosts 623 active annotators who contributed 179,663 annotations to 19,541 images. Preliminary analyses highlight a high variability among participants but show promising results to detect trends in species abundance variation over time. Ultimately, the information gathered via this approach can help improving the algorithms necessary to produce accurate automated detection in imagery using a machine learning approach.

The EMSO-Azores deep sea observatory: 8 years of operation

Pierre-Marie Sarradin

The EMSO-Azores deep sea observatory is a component of the EMSO ERIC. It focuses on two main questions: What are the feedbacks between volcanism, deformation, seismicity, and hydrothermalism at a slow spreading mid-ocean ridge and how does the hydrothermal ecosystem couple with these sub-seabed processes? The infrastructure comprises 2 sea monitoring nodes, autonomous instruments and a set of site studies experiments. It has been deployed in 2010 in the Lucky Strike vent field and acquires multidisciplinary data since then.

The sound of waves in the Mutriku wave energy plant

J. Bald

Operating around offshore infrastructure and safe manoeuvring by autonaut USV

Phil Johnston

Monitoring coastal water quality with a combined approach of marine autonomy and satellite remote sensing

Phil Johnston

Evaluation of SigFox LPWAN technology for autonomous sensors in coastal applications

Matias Carandell Widmer

A low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) is a wireless communication network designed to send low bit rates in a long-range communication. SigFox is a LPWAN technology that uses Ultra Narrow Band to communicate packages of 12 bytes at a very low byte rate (<100 bits/s) and up to 140 messages/day per device. It is a payable service that includes the Base Stations and the Backend Services and works at 868 MHz (ISM band). These characteristics are attractive for IoT applications as it allows to send small packages at long distances at very low power range. The TD1205P module features the SIGFOX Gateway and includes GNSS and Accelerometer sensors for tracking applications in 30x38x10.5 mm size. As a low power and compact solution that includes sensing, processing and transmitting units, it is suitable for Energy Harvesting Autonomous Sensor applications. UPC is designing a drifter with a kinetic energy harvester, the electronics to adequate the power, the batteries to storage it and a TD1205P module as a tracker. It is going to be deployed at coastal areas to provide information of the surface currents for a long period hence, the power auntonomy has to be assured through the harvesting system. The aim of this study is to determinate the consumption of this module in his different modes of operation. Two modules were set with different configuration and his power were compared, then in future studies, EH generation will be modelled in order to determine the autonomy of the buoy. The software is designed to minimize the consumption so it keeps the TD1205P sleeping during long periods, spending a few amount of energy. At some interval, the modules will wake up, fix the GPS position, take the measurements of battery voltage and temperature, send the data thought Sigfox coverage and they will go back to sleep. Two modes were configured, called mode 0 and mode 1. The difference between them is that the first do not save any data of the satellite constellation and the second does, so differences were appreciated at fixing GPS time and at sleeping consumption. At figure 2 consumption of both modes is plotted with a symbolic working interval of 120 seconds. Table 1 shows the data plotted, being mode 0 segments from 1 to 6 and mode 1 segments from a to f. In one cycle, the module gets up and starts fixing the GPS position a taking the sensor measurements (2 – b) and then it sends the data ( 3 – c). This is pretty much the same for both modes but, when the module goes to sleep (4 –d), mode 1 keeps some memory alive for saving GPS constellation information so consumption is 5 times higher. Nevertheless, when the cycle starts the GPS fixing time (5 – e) is strongly different, being 8 times more at mode 0 because it has to start from nothing. In addition, in both modes, it is easy to appreciate how SigFox technology sends each package of 12 bytes 3 times, at 3 pseouranom frequencies on the UNB modulation of the ISM band ( 3, 6, c and f ). To sum up, substantial consumptions were appreciated at different modes of work, some in the range of mA for short intervals and some at uA level for long ones. To determine the best option, a long-term study was simulated with intervals of 2 hours each output package.

Combined current profiling and biological echosounding results from a single ADCP

David W. Velasco

The present work describes a newly-developed Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) that has a fully integrated single-beam wide-band biological echosounder, thus serving a dual purpose: current measurement and biomass assessment. The system comprises a traditional 4-beam Janus configuration head, which is responsible for profiling the currents, with a vertically oriented center beam for collecting high-resolution acoustic backscatter data for subsequent biomass analysis. The system belongs to the Signature Series family of ADCPs launched in 2013 by Norwegian scientific instrumentation company Nortek. Named Signature100, it is powered by the AD2CP electronics platform, described in United States Patent 7.911.880. The four slanted beams (current profiling beams) operate at a center frequency of 100 kHz and have a range of up to 400 m with 4 m spatial resolution and sampling rate up to 1 Hz. The center vertical beam (echosounding beam) has a wider frequency band of approximately 70-120 kHz with a high dynamic range (~130 dB), and presently operating in up to three discreet pulse characteristics from a single beam set: 1) 70 kHz monochromatic, 2) 120 kHz monochromatic, and 3) 91 kHz chirp with 50 percent bandwidth and pulse compression. Acoustic pulses from the echosounder beam are interweaved with pulses for the current profiling beam for synchronous data collection. In this work we describe the system’s configuration, capabilities and results from initial trials.paper that is identical with the extended summaries format.

Automatic panoramic image creation system from OBSEA PTZ underwater camera

Marc Nogueras Cervera

This article is a description about how to take advantage of an underwater PTZ camera to obtain an immersive panoramic image of the seabed environment.

A nonlinear kinetic energy harvester for light sufac

Daniel Mihai Toma

A nonlinear kinetic energy harvester for ocean drifter devices is presented. The design contains a gyroscopic wave energy harvesting system, capable of generating power from the wave-induced translational and rotational motions of a Wavy ocean drifter.

Proof of concept for distributing underwater noise mapping through EMODnet physics portal

Thomas Folegot

Underwater noise has been significantly raising in the past decades due to an increment of human-related activities in the oceans such as shipping, industrial activities, seismic explorations, coastal developments, etc. As recognized by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), these activities may have adverse effects on fish and mammals, such as communications masking and modifying predator–prey interactions, or, for the most intense noise sources, direct temporary or permanent physiological damage. In order to assess and limit the impact of these, the European Commission approved the Marine Strategy Framework Directive which aims to achieve a good environmental status in European waters. Within this directive different environmental challenges are addressed, including the long-term monitoring of underwater noise throughout European waters. EMODnet Physics is one of the European Marine Observation and Data network thematic portals, which is currently providing access physical parameters of the oceans. Quonops Online Services is an online and on-demand underwater noise prediction system (qos.quiet-oceans.com) that provides with global statistical maps of both natural and anthropogenic components of the underwater noise. Quonops has been successfully experimented to fulfil the requirements of the MSFD during the BIAS Life+ funded project to provide regional underwater noise mapping of the Baltic Sea. The feasibility of the connection between Quonops and EMODNet platforms together with the LIDO (Listen to Deep Ocean) network of underwater sound monitoring network has been demonstrated through periodic and automatic delivery of monthly noise maps. This multi-platform technological innovation forms a major step forward towards an operational service dedicated to the operational survey of underwater noise at regional scales.

EMSO-ANTARES (Western Ligurian Sea) a unique observatory for sea science and particle astrophysics

D. Lefevre

Acoustic tag tracking: first experiments

Ivan Masmitjà Rusiñol

Nowadays, the use of autonomous vehicles for ocean research has increased, since these vehicles have a better cost/performance ratio than crewed vessels or oceanographic ships. For example, autonomous surface vehicles can be used to localize underwater targets. Whereas different research works are focused in target tracking using acoustic modems (or USBL), in this paper a new method called Area-Only target tracking is presented, which uses the signal generated by acoustic TAGs. This document, the first tests are presented and their results discussed, which were conducted in the Monterey Bay.

Expanding ocean-monitoring capabilities in the Macaronesia with unmanned mobile platforms

C. Barrera

The Macaronesia is a vast area playing a key role in the East boundary of the Central North-Atlantic ocean-circulation system. Despite a significant research activity in ocean monitoring for decades using a wide range of observing systems and methodologies, the area is still under-sampled, mainly due access and coverage constrains, as well as the observation sustainability. Ocean gliders offer a new approach in terms of capacity and sustainability, allowing undertake ocean-monitoring in spatiotemporal scales hitherto unavailable. The present work shows preliminary results from the latest mission with buoyancy-driven and surface ocean gliders in the area, whose main goal focuses on to improve and expand ocean observation capabilities strengthening glider endurance lines between archipelagos, as part of the global ocean-observation strategy conducted by the Marine & Maritime Network (R3M), as regional contribution directly aligned with European and international initiatives and strategies in the North Atlantic basin.

Smart sensing interoperability platforms in the scope of Atlantos

Daniel A. Real-Arce

This paper aims to demonstrate the capabilities of a Smart Cable which aims to convert any commercial non-PUCK-enabled sensor in a Smart PUCK-enabled device. Through this development, it can be easily integrated on a sensor web platform in order to access the data in real time, and so there is no need to rely on each sensor manufacturer to comply with Sensor Web Enablement standards. The results presented in this paper were acquired during some real field experiments performed between the 24th and 28th of September at PLOCAN facilities in Gran Canaria. During these days three Turner Designs Cyclops sensors were successfully integrated and tested in a mission using an observing surface vehicle such as the Wave Glider SV-2.

Hydrophone installation in the Raia Ocean-Meteorological Observatory Net

Pablo Álvarez

An Iclisten hydrophone has been installed in a metocean platform of RAIA Obervatory, as part of the MarRisk project, and data are being uploaded to EMODnet web portal.

RAMICA owen: performing automatic microbiological cultures

Xulio Fernandez Hermida

This article presents the RAMICA owen. The whole RAMICA sensor is able to implement a complete culture of bacteria inside a buoy. It does a culture every day, for 3 months, and sends data in real time. This allows to monitor the evolution of bacteriological contamination and relate it with what it is happening in human doing. RAMICA sensor is a certified laboratory. It implements the MPN (Most Probable Number) Standard Method using 51 separated cells. In each cell it uses different light illumination (white or ultra violet) and its oven can work at different temperatures. With the right combination of lightning and temperature, it can culture Total coliform, Enterococcus and Ecoli.

Unexpected interaction in biological cultures

Xulio Fernandez Hermida

The aim of this article is to show how, in the development of the RAMICA sensor, we find an unexpected interaction between the IDDEX nutrient () and the flexible translucent catheters we need to implement the cells separation in the RAMICA sensor.

ANTEIA System: cost-effective solution for extense wave monitoring

Iratxe Arraibi-Landa

Bearing in mind the growing importance of reliable temporal data series for scientific surveys and monitoring related to climate change and extreme events, among other things, the ANTEIA System was developed as a cost-effective solution and service to measure ocean surface waves, available to the scientific world. In this sense, ANTEIA System has some specific advantages which include its light weight (26kg), its diameter (0.6m) and its solar powered rechargeable battery. It also offers real time data visualization via website and app, bespoke mooring design for each site and tried-and-tested reliability, which will be shown in the comparative section of this paper.

EMODnet: your gateway to marine data in Europe

Patrick Gorringe

EMODnet physics and river runoff data management

Francisco Campuzano

Rivers runoff exert a strong influence in their neighbouring coastal area in several ways, modifying the water stratification, introducing significant fluctuations in circulation patterns and modulating the impact of upwelling events. This paper presents data management methods and standards to make harmonised river data available and accessible.

EMODnet ingestion portal: Wake up your data! Set them free for blue society

Dick M.A. Schaap

Dataflow of underwater noise measurements: from OBSEA to EMODnet

Joaquín del Río Fernandez

Underwater noise has been significantly raising in the past decades due to an increment of human-related activities in the oceans such as shipping, industrial activities, seismic explorations, etc. These activities may have adverse effects on fish and mammals, such as communications masking and modifying predator– prey interactions. In order to assess and limit the impact of these, the European Commission approved the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) which aims to achieve a good environmental status in European waters. Within this directive different environmental challenges are addressed, including the long-term monitoring of underwater noise throughout European waters. EMODnet Physics, one of the European Marine Observation and Data network thematic portals, which is is currently providing easy access to data and products of: wave height and period; temperature and salinity of the water column; wind speed and direction; horizontal velocity of the water column; light attenuation; sea ice coverage and sea level trends. EMODnet Physics is continuously increasing the number and type of platforms in the system by unlocking and providing high quality data from a growing network. EMODnet Physics has recently started working on water noise with the aim of making available more operational data (in terms of parameters and format that are close to MSFD I.11 requirements), offer a single European entry point to impulsive noise registries (MSFD I.11.1) and work on (regional) sound maps are three key identified activities for Physics. Furthermore the very first operational under water noise data (i.e. Sound Pressure Level – SPL), and HELCOM and OSPAR impulsive sounds registry were connected and are now available on the portal. Exploiting the LIDO (Listen to Deep Ocean) knowledge and the BIAS project (https://biasproject. wordpress.com/) experience EMODnet Physics will develop and make available monthly sound maps. In this presentation, we give an overview of how EMODnet Physics is organized, with a particular focus on this new data flow and its perspectives.

EMODnet physics: towards an European impulsive noise register

Antonio Novellino

EMODnet Physics, one of the European Marine Observation and Data network thematic portals, which is is currently providing access physical parameters of the oceans, has recently started working on water noise with the aim of making available more operational data (in terms of parameters and format that are close to MSFD I.11 requirements), offer a single European entry point to impulsive noise registries (MSFD I.11.1) and work on (regional) sound maps.

MARTECH 2018 : 8th International Workshop on Marine Technology

MARTECH congregates a broad research community dedicated to developing innovative equipment in the fields of marine sciences and technology. In 2018, this diverse community will meet in Porto, Portugal, at the Faculty of Engineering from the University of Porto for MARTECH18. This edition is co-organized by the Laboratório de Sistemas e Tecnologia Subaquática – LSTS (Underwater Systems and Technologies Laboratory) of Porto University and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, was elected by the European citizens Best European Destination in 2014 and in 2017. The essence of Porto, the “Cidade Invicta” (unvanquished city) is a blend of history, architecture, culture, gastronomy, trade, encounters and discoveries. The MARTECH workshop aims to bring together those working in MARine TECHnology for discussions and presentations of recent advances in the field and for cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange cutting across engineering and science. This knowledge exchange is fundamental for the development of systems and technologies that will enable us to explore and exploit the ocean in a sustainable manner and to monitor how key issues such as climate change, ocean acidification, unsustainable fishing, pollution, loss of habitats, shipping, security, and mining are affecting ocean sustainability and stewardship.