Oceanography: Robots measure the motions of the ocean
Nature Communications
2017년1월25일

A swarm of robots capable of studying detailed ocean dynamics are described in Nature Communications this week. The small, autonomous robots can record 3D movements of water that have been difficult to measure using traditional instruments, and may provide new insights into physical and biological phenomena in the ocean.
Some of the least-understood processes in the ocean, such as internal wave formation, occur beneath the surface at scales between a metre and a few kilometres. Observations of these dynamics require simultaneous sampling at multiple locations, a task that could be suited to swarms of current-following vehicles, Jules Jaffe and colleagues note. A five-hour deployment of 16 mini-autonomous underwater explorers, whose 3D trajectories are measured near-continuously, is shown to produce a high-resolution reconstruction of the movements of internal waves. The robots mimic formations observed in plankton, which demonstrates how this system can help to explain the influence of ocean dynamics on biological processes.
The authors propose that these small (1.5 litres in volume), relatively inexpensive vehicles could be used in conjunction with other observational tools to improve our understanding of interactions between physical dynamics and biological processes in the open ocean.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms14189
리서치 하이라이트
-
3월4일
Environment: Reservoirs account for more than half of water storage variabilityNature
-
3월2일
Evolution: Neanderthals may have heard just like usNature Ecology & Evolution
-
3월2일
Geoscience: Earth’s atmosphere may return to low-levels of oxygen in one billion yearsNature Geoscience
-
2월26일
Environment: Shifting from small to medium plastic bottles could reduce PET wasteScientific Reports
-
2월24일
Environment: European forests more vulnerable to multiple threats as climate warmsNature Communications
-
2월11일
Environment: Global CFC-11 emissions in declineNature