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Acoustic Sensing Cube in the Ocean Twilight Zone.

Acoustic Sensing Cube in the Ocean Twilight Zone.
Acoustic Sensing Cube in the Ocean Twilight Zone.
Acoustic Sensing Cube in the Ocean Twilight Zone.
Acoustic Sensing Cube in the Ocean Twilight Zone.
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529751
Renier, Natalie
Acoustic Sensing Cube in the Ocean Twilight Zone.
Illustration
01/01/2021
CRE02411_AcousticSensingCubeintheOTZ_CuriosityStream-01.png
Caption from The Ocean Twilight Zone's Role in Climate Change report, pg. 30:
Ocean Twilight Zone Observation Network:
The Ocean Twilight Zone Observation Network, currently under development, will provide scientists with a comprehensive view of how carbon moves through the twilight zone. The network, which has been designed by a team based at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will eventually cover a region of about 250,000 square kilometers (roughly 155,300 square miles) of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. It is made up of sonar moorings, highly sensitive fish-tracking tags, and mobile submersible sensor systems, including a fleet of new MINION (MINiature IsOpycNal) floats. MINIONs, which are camera-laden devices that help to record the quantity and type of marine snow particles falling through the twilight zone, will help tease out the biological carbon pump’s role in the global carbon cycle. Together, this collection of instruments will give researchers around-the-clock data from the twilight zone over months or even years. Information collected using the Observation Network will help to improve estimates of the amount of carbon that moves through the twilight zone and could reveal how biological organisms affect that movement through their interactions and daily migrations to the surface. In the process, the network will help scientists understand how twilight zone organisms affect global climate—and provide unprecedented insight into a little-known, yet vitally important region of the ocean.
Caption from WHOI News Release, 02/08/2021:
An ocean network from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will give scientists a comprehensive view of the twilight zone, or mesopelagic, using several different technologies including moored buoys equipped with acoustic survey systems; a swarm of optical and geochemical sensors; and new fish-tracking tags that will continuously record the position of major predators such as sharks and tuna. All of these components will connect to the network’s buoys using acoustic signals underwater and an Iridium satellite link at the surface.
Illustration by Natalie Renier, WHOI Creative
Copyright © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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