Collecting observations of environmental conditions and marine life can help scientists understand how the offshore environment is changing and how animals use the ocean and respond to offshore energy infrastructure. Observing animals in offshore locations is difficult because of extreme environmental conditions, high costs of deployment, and logistical challenges associated with installation and maintenance. Finding opportunities to integrate environmental monitoring sensors onto existing offshore systems and platforms can allow for more data collection at lower cost.
New types of remote environmental sensors are being developed to observe seabirds, whales, and other marine life, opening opportunities to advance our scientific understanding of the marine environment and how animals respond to human infrastructure. Sensors can be deployed to measure interactions between the atmosphere and ocean; detect the presence of sensitive, threatened, or elusive species; observe behavior of individual animals; and collect information on many other phenomena. Environmental monitoring sensors have a range of requirements. For example, some sensors measure acoustic properties to listen for animals, others need range of sight to observe thermal or visual signatures, and others sample the chemical composition of water or air. Sensors range in size from small components that can be added to a circuit board to 100-pound systems that need to be mounted on a stable platform.
Because of the variety of instruments that can be used for remote marine observations (Figures 1 and 2), there is no one-size-fits-all deployment platform. The characteristics, functions, and needs of the sensor must be considered when integrating the sensor with a suitable platform. Some considerations include the sensor’s power draw, communication protocol, size, and required field of view.
This research brief describes the primary considerations for selecting an appropriate platform for existing or novel offshore environmental sensors. It is designed to support early decision-making and planning for offshore data collection campaigns and includes descriptions of different platform types and important integration questions to consider throughout the sensor design and/or platform selection process.
Offshore Environmental Monitoring with Platform-Mounted Sensors (Web Version)
Offshore Environmental Monitoring with Platform-Mounted Sensors (Print Version)
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