Meso profiler 2021

albex-test-2024

Autonomous benthic landers are widely used in the deep sea. Capable of long-term deployments in some of the most remote benthic habitats, landers provide valuable information about the physical environments that deep-sea organisms experience through time. They operate on the principle of a drop weight, often acoustically triggered, and an appropriate amount of buoyancy to enable its retrieval at the surface following release of the weight. Their design and operation, despite the simplicities in principle, require a nuanced understanding of ocean technology, including metal behavior and corrosion, buoyancy and weight, as well as accurate understanding of how the lander will behave both in the water column and on the seafloor. The core of the Davies Lab ALBEX lander is depth-rated to 6000 m, stands 7 ft tall x 7 ft wide, and weighs nearly 2500 lbs in air when fully outfitted with a suite of instruments, including an acoustic current profiler, optical fluorometer/turbidity sensor, oxygen sensor, CTD, sediment trap and camera system. In this project, we will undertake testing and trials of the lander system, test new sensor integrations and establish real-time tracking and telemetry using a Sonardyne Ranger 2 USBL system.