A novel method of obtaining near real-time observations of phytoplankton from a mobile autonomous platform

摘要

Emerging marine observation technologies provide new opportunities to learn about phytoplankton communities with greater spatiotemporal resolution. Autonomous vehicles enable real-time ocean data collection and communications over long durations, in varying sea states and at lower cost than crewed ships. The Jupiter Research Foundation is developing a novel device to obtain near real-time phytoplankton observations from a mobile unmanned platform. The Jupiter Autonomous Microscope (JAM) is an autonomous microscope imaging system that acquires, crops and geo-tags phytoplankton images and sends them to a shore-based server via mobile phone or satellite networks. On-shore processing includes automated object measurements and classification, as well as statistical calculations. Images and corresponding data are made accessible on a dedicated website that allows filtering, annotation and sharing. Successfully deployed on Wave Gliders for several weeks at a time, JAM provides a unique view of phytoplankton community structure. This paper describes the overall JAM design and operation.