SBIR Phase I: Modular, Low-cost Instrumentation System

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will study the development of a modular system that will significantly lower the cost of collecting data on oceanographic phenomena. This system consists of individual modules designed to measure beam attenuation, beam absorption, and backscattering at single wavelengths, fluorescence for single excitation/detection wavelength pairs, and turbidity in the visible spectrum. The modular system will allow for the incorporation of other low-cost devices, such as off-the-shelf temperature or CTD sensors. In addition, a low-cost communications module will be designed, which will facilitate communications via cell phone technology or radio transceivers for terrestrial, estuary, and coastal applications. This system will target institutions participating in ocean color validation programs, specifically observing and understanding the role of the oceans in global climate change. It will also target projects with in-situ observations at organizations such as; NSF's Global Change Research Programs, NOAA, NASA, and the National Weather Service. The lowest cost measurement scheme for most researches is to use freely available or low cost satellite data. However, this satellite data is useless without ground truth data and validation of modeled data from satellite measurements. This set of modular instruments will allow a researcher on a limited budget to accurately and independently verify data obtained from "inversion analyses" of satellite data to obtain inherent optical properties and turbidity. By lowering the cost of remote sensing, this activity has the potential to open up hand-on remote sensing to educators, and broaden the participation of all groups, including underrepresented groups.