Jun 5 2010
A robotic submersible has been positioned in the Gulf of Mexico’s oily water to gather oil plume information related to an accident at the deepwater horizon drilling site for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA). This high-tech submersible was dispatched by the Marine Operations Division of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) through a tie up with the NOAA.
MBARI An autonomous underwater vehicle from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) being launched from the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter in the Gulf of Mexico
Such autonomous underwater vehicles are untethered, robotic submersibles. These submersibles have been programmed while they are at the land surface. They can navigate through the water themselves, and gather data as they move on. The MBARI AUV can measure water’s physical characteristics like dissolved oxygen, salinity, and temperature for finding out droplets’ concentration or detecting chlorophyll due to microscopic marine algae.
The Pascagoula, Mississippi-based NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter has deployed the MBARI AUV that left the shore on May 27, 2010, while the AUV was launched in the Gulf’s waters on May 28, 2010, for the first time.
This unique AUV carries gulper samplers capable of gathering a maximum of 10, 1.8-L water samples when they pass through the plume. A state-of-the-art artificial intelligence software is utilized by the AUV to decide the place to visit and the time of collecting the samples.
The on-board computers can be programmed by engineers for enabling the AUV to locate a plume and then map the boundaries of this plume, besides taking water samples in and outside the plume.
Although aircraft and satellites are able to depict how much the spill has spread at the ocean surface, the AUV can assist researchers in understanding the extent and nature of the oil plumes hidden under the ocean surface.
Water samples are analyzed after the recovery of the AUV for a range of chemicals related with dispersants and oil. DNA analysis of these water samples helps detect the presence of types of bacteria, algae or other microorganisms. This AUV can dive to 5,000 ft below the ocean surface for gathering water samples in the seafloor’s vicinity of the oil spill. The AUV usually adopts a roller-coaster route through the water, so that its instruments are able to monitor the ocean’s cross section.