Development of a Low-Cost, Air-Deployable Ocean CTD Profiler for In-Situ Investigation of Sub-Mesoscale Eddies
PI: Xueju (Sophie) Wang, University of Connecticut
Partners: University of Connecticut, LBI Inc.
Understanding mass, heat, and energy transfer in the ocean is essential for assessing climate processes, particularly those involving sub-mesoscale eddies that span areas of 100–10,000 square kilometers. Satellite observations provide continuous surface data—such as ocean color, sea surface temperature, and occasionally sea surface height—but they cannot resolve subsurface structure or vertical stratification, especially temperature and salinity variations with depth (CTD). As a result, obtaining synoptic, cost-effective, in situ measurements of sub-mesoscale eddies remains a significant challenge.
To address this gap, we have formed a multidisciplinary team combining UConn’s expertise in sensors and telemetry with LBI’s capabilities in buoyancy control and package fabrication. Our goal is to design and demonstrate a new, low-cost, air-deployable ocean profiler capable of performing CTD measurements of sub-mesoscale features in situ. This Phase I effort focuses on four objectives:
- Designing and fabricating power-efficient, compact, low-cost soft CTD sensors with measurement performance comparable to conventional systems.
- Developing a low-cost buoyancy engine capable of cycling between the ocean surface and 400 m depth for vertical profiling.
- Integrating the sensors, buoyancy engine, and data telemetry into a robust, fully functional package and validating system durability.
- Demonstrating the feasibility of the approach through extensive laboratory, boat-based, and airborne deployment testing, culminating in operational profiling with a demonstrator float.
The resulting profiler will fill a critical capability gap by enabling high-resolution, in situ sampling of temperature and salinity structure in sub-mesoscale eddies at a fraction of current system costs. This technology represents an important step in the Navy’s efforts to enhance subsurface observational capacity and will provide unprecedented data for understanding ocean mixing and its influence on climate. By enabling scalable, synoptic observations of subsurface eddy dynamics, this work lays the foundation for next-generation oceanographic measurement systems and improved predictive capabilities.