RAPID: MRI: Acquisition of an Autonomous Underwater Glider to Investigate Mixing and Dispersion of Oil-gas Mixtures

Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Observational studies of turbulence in the deep-sea are relatively scarce, and to the best of our knowledge there are no published studies addressing the role of turbulence processes in the dispersion of oil-gas mixture, or other pollutants, plumes in the deep-sea. The Gulf oil spill provides a unique opportunity to study mixing and dispersion mechanisms in deep waters using oil-gas plumes as a distinctive marker. These markers are temporary and eventually will fade away, providing a relatively short window of opportunity for the proposed field work. The requested RAPID award will allow the PI?s to take advantage of this opportunity. The PI's request funding to acquire an autonomous underwater glider equipped with state-of-the-art scientific payload for simultaneous measurements of physical and biogeochemical variables. This instrumentation will allow the PI's to capture the dynamics associated with deep-sea plumes. The PI's believe that qualitative interpretations of solely biogeochemical measurements are simply insufficient for understanding the dynamics of complex systems such as these plumes, simultaneous measurements of physical and biogeochemical variables, and the interdisciplinary expertise of our team, is thus required to accurately interpret and predict the dynamics. Broader Impacts: The turbulence measurements are expected to help to improve parameterizations of sub-grid scale processes in numerical dispersion models which are crucial for improvement of their predictive skills. Results of this project, and the detailed interdisciplinary datasets that will be collected, will have application in assessment of the dynamics and fate of deep-sea water-borne constituents other than oil-gas plumes.