Mini AMP Summary
The Miniaturized, Autonomous, Moored rofiler (Mini AMP) is a low power, autonomous, scalable, bottom-up profiling system for long-term (up to 6 months) deployments. The system will contain a suite of environmental sensors, an integrated data control system, and a telemetry unit as a part of a modular, winch-driven profiling platform. The compact, hydrodynamic, low power design of the Mini AMP system will support a variety of long-term applications, where real-time, high vertical resolution physical and bio-optical data are required.The overall goal of this research will be to design a Mini AMP system that offers a high level of flexibility in sensing parameters, data telemetry and data control, while maintaining a high level of performance, reliability, accuracy, and ease of use thereby making the system inherently scalable. The prototype design to be developed in this Phase I research will be based on a multi-parameter sensor suite including an optical scattering detector, chlorophyll and colored DOM fluorometers, a spectral attenuation meter, a spectral irradiance sensor, and a CTD. The telemetry unit, an Iridium-based communication link, will provide bi-directional communications for profile scheduling and data retrieval capabilities from remote locations. The compact light weight design of the Mini AMP system will facilitate a variety of possible deployment methods in coastal areas (10-100 m) including small boat, aircraft and submarine torpedo launches .
The proposed capabilities of the Mini AMP represent a significant innovation in sampling technology above and beyond the capabilities currently available from existing commercial profiling platforms. The Mini AMP system will provide an affordable, reliable, easy to maintain, and rapidly deployable/recoverable solution to obtaining long term, high vertical resolution profiles of important physical and bio-optical properties in coastal regions.