Current Projects

The North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI)

The North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI)

The MHL in partnership with Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) deployed both the ALWAS buoys and the BathyBoat in surface lakes in two separate deployments on the North Slope of Alaska. The first deployment in August 08 took place out of Inigok with the follow up deployment occurring out of Barrow in early September. These deployments were in support of the North Slope Science Initiative, providing a baseline characterization of North Slope lakes for use in sound resource management and decision making.

This was the second Alaskan deployment for the ALWAS buoys which were created for use in such remote harsh environments. The ALWAS buoys, which were upgraded for this project, supplied GPS position and navigation, water depth, temperature, conductivity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, oxidation reduction potential, chlorophyll-a, and blue-green algae. This data was recorded on board at 1 minute intervals as well as transmitted in real-time in a GIS (Geographical Information System) format to properly characterize individual water body measurements.

This was BathyBoat's first Alaskan deployment, though it has been used extensively in the Great Lakes region since its design and fabrication in 2007. This miniaturized remote control survey system was used to record the bathymetry of the lakes as well as supplying separate measurements of temperature and conductivity.

The use of these two semi-autonomous sensor platforms has proven that it is possible to obtain high quality and high density water quality data in near real time at a greatly reduced expense from the traditional methods of manual water sample collection and laboratory analysis.

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