The IMCORP Project
Instrumentation for
Marine Carbon Dioxide from
Remote Platforms
IMCORP is a 3-year Mast-III project (from February 1996 onwards), funded by the European Commission under the MAST Programme, involving three partners: the University of East Anglia, UK, the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France, and the University of Bergen, Norway.
The contents of the Web page:
The gathering of marine data has in the vast majority of cases been restricted to research cruises. The limited number of research ships means that it is difficult to get globally adequate data coverage for dynamic, global processes. Often, conditions change spatially within a time-scales which can only with great difficulty be identified by the occasional research cruise. Therefore, there is an acute need for automated instrumentation which can perform analysis remotely.
In particular, such instrumentation is necessary for the understanding of the oceanic carbon cycle. The fluxes of carbon throughout the oceans and between the atmosphere and oceans can be studied by measuring parameters such as the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in seawater, the total carbon dioxide content, pH and total alkalinity of seawater. All these variables can change rapidly.
The aim of the IMCORP project is the design and building of instruments for the totally automated analysis of the marine carbon dioxide. Two different systems are being designed, the difference being their way of deployment, one type being installed in Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS), the other in free-drifting or anchored buoys (Carbon buoy).
1996:
- The design and building of the first instruments of VOS and Carbon buoy;
- the testing of both systems in the lab environment.
1997:
- The attended testing of both systems at sea;
- the installation of the VOS system on a ship of opportunity;
- the deployment of the Carbon buoy in the open ocean;
- the building of replicate instruments and their subsequent deployment.
1998:
- The collection and interpretation of data from the automated systems.
The address: School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich
Norfold
NR4 7TJ
Great Britain
The people: Prof. Andy J. Watson (project leader)
Dr. Ute Schuster
Dr. Richard J. Bellerby
The address: Laboratoire d'Océ anographie Dynamique et de Climatologie
Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Tour 14
2è mé é tage
4 Place Jussieu
75252 Paris Cedex 05
France
The people: Dr. Liliane Merlivat
Prof. Gil Michard
Mr. Francois Prevot
Miss Laurence Baumont
The address: Geophysical Department
Allegt. 70
University of Bergen
5007 Bergen
Norway
The people: Dr. Truls Johannessen
Last update: 17 July 1996
Contact address for the WWW page: U.Schuster@uea.ac.uk