Miniature Dissolved Oxygen and Turbulence Optical Sensor for River and Coastal Environmental Applications

摘要

This paper describes an innovative miniature optical sensor for predicting dissolved oxygen concentrations and measuring turbulence in river and littoral water columns. The dissolved oxygen and turbulence sensor consists of a single-frequency laser transmitter and a photodetector on which the scattered light from the turbulent water at the base of a dam or spillway is coherently mixed with a sample of the transmitted beam. This miniature sensor could be used both upstream and downsteam of dams and weirs to predict the amount of dissolved oxygen and turbulence in these waters. It could also be used on mobile platforms, such as unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV's), to monitor the edges of biological or chemical plumes or for wake follow platforms, schools of fish or marine mammals or on stationary unattended underwater sensors to monitor natural aeration and turbulence in littoral and riverine waters. Arrays of fixed unattended sensors could be used to detect the wake of transiting submerged vehicles, scuba divers, marine mammals or large schools of fish. A mobile platform equipped with a miniature sensor could to be cued to the general location and depth of an underwater target and then the platform could use this small aperture sensor to acquire and follow the wake. This dissolved oxygen and turbulence sensor system could be miniaturized and packaged into a very small volume; approximately the size of a wristwatch.