Project: A Device for In Situ Calibration of Oxygen Sensors

NSF Award Abstract:
The PI requests funding to carry out a series of ocean tests of their in situ O2 calibration device This will include eight field tests on three different moorings in two years to determine the accuracy and at-sea reliability of the new calibration system. Testing efficiency will be optimized by constructing two more calibration systems so that they can be swapped when the moorings are serviced. The new in situ oxygen calibration systems will include moderate improvements suggested by the testing done so far.

Broader Impacts: Accurate and precise observations of oxygen are crucial to understanding biological processes and recent work also indicates that oxygen can be used as a proxy for determining pH (an extremely difficult measurement) and important to understanding aragonite saturation in the oceans. This work will provide extremely valuable data on the performance of oxygen sensors that will contribute to real-time quality control of oxygen data from profiling floats equipped with oxygen sensors throughout the world's oceans and to the development of a research-quality oxygen database over the long term. The project supports one fulltime graduate student.