STTR Phase I: Bio-optical Sensor for the Direct Detection of Sinking Marine Particles

STTR 第一阶段：用于直接检测下沉海洋颗粒的生物光学传感器

• 批准号: 2136735
• 负责人: Wayne Slade
• 金额: $ 25.41万
• 依托单位: Sequoia Scientific, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2136735&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Bio; optical; Sensor

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is a stronger understanding of how living things absorb carbon in the ocean. It is important to have an accurate measure of the natural carbon uptake by the ocean because this affects ocean and fishery health, as well as future efforts to intentionally sequester carbon in the ocean to mitigate climate change. This goal will be achieved by developing a low-cost sensor that can be widely deployed on ocean robots, which are already being used to measure processes like ocean heat uptake. The sensor will use light to detect sinking debris in the ocean. This debris is a major way that carbon is naturally sequestered in the ocean. Distributed, robotic platforms in the ocean allow observations to be made in locations and seasons that are not accessible with research ships. Such platforms are generally lower cost than sensors associated with research ships. Development and sale of sensors for robotic platforms are areas of growth because of the increasing reliance on these platforms for scientific observations. This project may also enhance academic and industry partnerships and help to train upcoming scientists and engineers in instrument development.There is a significant desire to expand measurements of ocean biological carbon pump processes to better understand climate change, in particular the flux of carbon by particles settling out of the surface ocean. This project will create a sensor that is designed to be carried aboard globally distributed, autonomous profiling floats. The sensors/floats may help distinguish among the different modes of biological carbon uptake in the ocean. The sensor will be designed from the ground up to meet the challenges of sampling floats, which have stringent power consumption, cost, and data quality-control requirements. The sensor will also have specific optical and housing geometry characteristics tailored for measurement of sinking particle fluxes. The development stages will consist of optical modeling of proposed sensor geometries, modeling of particle collection efficiencies of different housing geometries, laboratory testing of model particles, and dissemination of results to the scientific community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金均根据《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）提供。该小企业技术转让 (STTR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是更深入地了解生物如何吸收碳在海洋中。准确测量海洋的自然碳吸收量非常重要，因为这会影响海洋和渔业健康，以及未来有意封存海洋碳以缓解气候变化的努力。这一目标将通过开发一种可广泛部署在海洋机器人上的低成本传感器来实现，海洋机器人已被用于测量海洋吸热等过程。该传感器将利用光来检测海洋中下沉的碎片。 这些碎片是碳在海洋中自然封存的主要方式。海洋中的分布式机器人平台允许在科考船无法到达的地点和季节进行观测。此类平台的成本通常低于与研究船相关的传感器。由于科学观测越来越依赖这些平台，机器人平台传感器的开发和销售成为增长领域。该项目还可以加强学术和行业合作伙伴关系，并帮助培训未来的科学家和工程师进行仪器开发。人们非常希望扩大海洋生物碳泵过程的测量，以更好地了解气候变化，特别是颗粒沉降引起的碳通量从表层海洋中出来。该项目将创建一种传感器，设计用于携带在全球分布的自主剖面浮标上。 传感器/浮标可能有助于区分海洋中生物碳吸收的不同模式。该传感器将从头开始设计，以应对浮体采样的挑战，浮体采样具有严格的功耗、成本和数据质量控制要求。该传感器还将具有专为测量下沉颗粒通量而定制的特定光学和外壳几何特征。开发阶段将包括拟议传感器几何形状的光学建模、不同外壳几何形状的颗粒收集效率建模、模型颗粒的实验室测试以及向科学界传播结果。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为是值得的通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。