Research contribu�ons Ocean Monitoring Instrument and Development of Unique Portal Database for Archipelagic Countries ¹ ⁴Noir P. Purba, ¹Ibnu Faizal, ² ⁴Darryl A. Valino, ³Alexander M.A. Khan ¹DepartmentofMarineScience,UniversitasPadjadjaran,Indonesia ²MarineScienceInstitute,UniversityofthePhilippines,Philippines ³DepartmentofFishery,UniversitasPadjadjaran,Bandung-Indonesia ⁴AlumniofNF-POGO2018/2019,AlfredWegenerInstitute,Germany Alumnusprofile:https://nf-pogo-alumni.org/profile/Noaa1782/ Alumnusprofile:https://nf-pogo-alumni.org/profile/dvalino/
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s archipelagic countries, Indonesia and the Philippines are faced with the challenge of fulfilling the need for comprehensive and con�nued oceanographic data. This is essen�al due to the complexity of the ocean and its dynamics. Understanding the oceanic and atmospheric environment changes is the key to predic�ng phenomena such as storms, ENSO, Tsunami, etc. Thus, such condi�ons need to be monitored regularly with high precision and high-resolu�on data. However, there is a lack of in-situ data mainly due to the high costs involved in field surveys, the limita�on of agencies that focus on marine observa�ons, and ocean characteris�cs’ complexity. In-situ observa�ons in oceans using dri�ers are essen�al for educa�on, research, stewardship, preserva�on and management of oceanic and biosphere systems (Dickey and Bidigare, 2005; Joseph, 2013). In the era of “big data era”, it is crucial to measure the ocean through direct monitoring. Time series data with relevant spa�al coverage will help the policymaking process of the government. This research builds a new instrument through the collabora�on between the Faculty of Fishery and Marine Science (FPIK) University of Padjadjaran and the Marine Science Ins�tute (MSI) of University of the Philippines, Diliman. The instrument will be called ARHEA (Advance Dri�er GPS Oceanography Coverage Area). This project is led by Noir P. Purba (PI), a researcher at the Marine Research Laboratory (MEAL), Marine Science Department Universitas Padjadjaran. He is supported by several scien�sts from the MOCEAN group, researchers from FPIK (Ibnu Faizal and Alexander M.A. Khan) and Darryl A. Valino as a country partner from MSI. The project was granted last year from Archipelagic Island State (AIS) under the UNDP programme, and it will end in November 2021. The project’s focus is to build an instrument that can sink to intermediate water levels and record the data. Another outcome of this project is to create an oceanographic database, including atmospheric and ecosystem data. The ARHEA instrument is expected to provide a solu�on to the problems explained above. With the latest technology and a good database system, it is expected to operate in the Indonesian and other archipelago countries. Dri�ers have a long history for a range of uses, mapping large-scale ocean currents and oil spills (Abascal et al., 2009), aiding search and rescue opera�ons (Ullman et al., 2006), tracking marine par�cles, including marine debris (Maximenko et al., 2012) and coastal mixing and larvae spreading (Edwards et al., 2006). The earliest dri�er design got sidestepped due to tracking issues and problems in iden�fying the start and the end of the dri�ers’ path (Lumpkin et al., 2016). The ARHEA instrument is equipped with water and air quality measurement sensors supported with ba�eries for extended opera�onal periods. This research is an advancement from the previous study of RHEA, which has been going on since 2016 (Purba et al., 2019). The sensors can be replaced or added as suitable for the type of research carried out. This instrument's opera�on is expected a�er deploying it in the open ocean for con�nued acquisi�on of water quality data such as temperature, salinity, oxygen, etc. With the global coverage of oceans, it is expected that challenges in the marine environment can be met. ARHEA is designed to be compact, portable, and deployed from shores or research vessels. It is also designed to accommodate several survey sensors as its payload, thus demanding a modular interface system. The database for receiving and distribu�ng data from ARHEA is currently in the development stage (h�ps://isea-podc.org). The previous server and website, the PODC, owned by MEAL Research Group since 2015, was intended for data storage from surveys, students’ research, and other sources. This developed system will be perfected to be able to receive and distribute data directly. PODC provides downloadable ocean data for free. The next step of ARHEA will be to conduct laboratory field tests in Indonesian and Philippine waters.
Figure 1 - Preliminary design and Assembly process.
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Acknowledgements This research is granted from Archipelagic Island State (2020-2021). We would like to appreciate the Editorial Board of nano news and the Faculty of Fishery and Marine Science, Universitas Padjadjaran. Please contact the authors or NANO for the references. 35
