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Technology Development: Hardware Development
Marine Instrumentation Laboratory (MIL)
MIL's goal is to provide high quality instrumentation packages for oceanographic,
biological, chemical, and water resources data collection. The highly
skilled engineers and technicians of the Marine Instrumentation
Laboratory (MIL) design electronics, develop
schematics, manufacture circuit boards and develop computer software
to support major systems design. MIL supports and maintains existing
GLERL instrumentation, provides the hardware and software
necessary for data acquisition systems, and provide various facility
and ancillary support services.
Oceanography
The purpose of this equipment is the measurement of water currents,
temperature, water quality parameters, wave conditions and the sampling
of water and sediments for subsequent analysis.
![deployment of drifter from boat.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090512014742im_/http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/products/images/vacm.jpg) |
Focus on Current Measurements:
MIL maintains a strong commitment to maintaining the current state
of the art in this area. We currently maintain an inventoryconsisting
of 8 RD ADCP's and several Sontek point current meters. We are
currently also investigating the 3DACM current meter produced by
Falmouth Scientific. MIL has also developed in house two series
of satellite reporting Lagrangian drifters using Loran and GPS
position sensing systems. Additionally MIL maintains a large active
inventory of Vector Averaging Current Meters (VACM), Marsh-McBirney
EM current meters and Neal Brown smart acoustic current meters
(SACM). These aging systems are in the sunset phase of their
utilization.
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![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090512014742im_/http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/products/images/prodploy.jpg) |
Autonomous CTD Profiler
The ACP was programmed to mechanically drive a CTD package up
and down a cable through 40 meters of the water column at the rate
of once per hour, taking measurements at sub-meter intervals. The
ACP uses an electric motor to drive the CTD package up and down
a wire rope cable. Rubber end stops attached to the cable determine
the limits of travel and can be adjusted to meet the specific requirements
of the experiment. The operation of the ACP is controlled by an
embedded microprocessor and data is stored onto a compact flash
disk. The flexibility of the programmable data logger allows specifying
the interval of the cycles as well as the sample rate. The unit
can sample and record data from the sensors in intervals as small
as 10 cm. (more)
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![Photo of micro-controller.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090512014742im_/http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/products/images/circuit.jpg) |
Microcontrollers and Dataloggers
Recent advances in electronics have produced very small and economical
computer driven controllers. These powerful tools have made it
possible for instrument developers to design powerful measurement
platforms with a minimum investment of time and capital. Shown
at left is the controller developed recently for the MIL programmable
sequential sediment sampler.
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Lagrangian Drifters
An important area of work for MIL has been the design and development
of drifting current measurement systems. At left is an example
of an MIL designed drifter which used the GPS system to report
locations to the ARGOS series satellites. This unit is controlled
with a Tattletale 2B datalogger. Currently we have 11 of these
units in inventory. These units were produced significantly in
advance of the availability of similar commercial units.
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Sequential Sediment Samplers
MIL has designed in house a programmable 24 bottle suspended sediment
sampler. This instrument is currently in it's third version. Early
examples utilized an entirely in house designed controller. The
current version uses a Tattletale TFX-11 datalogger. Currently
there 22 units in active use with 14 committed to the EEGLE project
in FY99. Several of these instruments have been distributed both
nationally and internationally.
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Plankton Survey System (PSS)
The Plankton Survey System (PSS) was assembled by GLERL's Marine
Instrumentation Lab (MIL) in 1997 to measure distribution and abundance
of zooplankton, tiny waterborne crustaceans that serve as a food
base for various species of larval fish. It measures turbidity,
chlorophyll a, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), conductivity,
temperature, and zooplankton distribution. The PSS and its onboard
instruments has been successfully used on an ongoing basis to survey
physical, chemical and biological conditions before, during and
after Lake Michigan sediment resuspension events as part of the
5-year Episodic Events Great Lakes Experiment (EEGLE) program.
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Meteorology
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WebCams and Met Stations
GLERL's Marine Instrumentation Laboratory has deployed and is
maintaining a real-time network of shore-based meteorological instrument
packages in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. Stations
in Illinois and Michigan also include web cameras. All meteorological
observation stations measure and record wind speed, wind gust,
wind direction, and air temperature. In addition, instruments in
Chicago measure water levels, and instruments at Muskegon measure
dew point, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and light level.
This data as well as camera images are updated at 5-30 minute intervals
and displayed on GLERL's web site.
Web Cams:
Muskegon, MI
Alpena, MI
Chicago, IL
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Met Stations:
Alpena, MI
Muskegon, MI
Saugatuck, MI
Michigan City, IN
Chicago, IL
Kenosha,WI
Milwaukee, WI |
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Lake Michigan Wireless Environmental Observatory
MIL is developing the first environmental observatory using wireless
internet technology on the Great Lakes at GLERL's Lake Michigan
Field Station in Muskegon, MI. When fully developed, the observatory
will provide chemical, physical and biological data to support
long-term research on the Great Lakes. These data will be available
to the scientific and educational community via the internet through
real-time observations. The goal of this project is to put in place
the infrastructure needed to simplify sensor deployment and data
acquisition to allow information access by scientific researchers,
educators and the public. This is an important contribution to
GLERL's leadership in supporting and promoting observation system
development among Great Lakes universities and non-governmental
organizations.
The environmental observatory consists of an offshore buoy connected
to a hub that recieves data from various environmental sensors
such as an acoustic doppler current profiler. The data are then
sent through a wireless link to an onshore receiver connected to
the internet.
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See also:
A brochure of Selected
Projects of GLERL's Marine Instrumentation Lab (pdf
format) is also available.
MIL Personnel Directory:
Steven A. Ruberg, EE, Head MIL 734-741-2271
Ronald W. Muzzi, EE 734-741-2007
Terrence C. Miller, ET 734-741-2217
John C. Lane, ET 734-741-2347
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