Award Data

There is a dearth of accessible information and innovative tools to map and obtain biomass data for analysis, conservation, and sustainable resource management of intertidal vegetation in the United States and globally. A major technical problem is the integration of biological and physical data at small spatial scales (2 meters). We propose Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) can be used for quality ...

We address a need of the neutron user community by creating a minimum viable prototype of the only high-throughput hydrostatic pressure small angle neutron scattering sample environment (HTHP-SANS-SE). Our HTHP-SANS-SE will greatly improve the ease of use and reliability of measurements under extreme environments, thereby increasing throughput on the beamline and expanding feasibility. Current HP- ...

Changes in ocean temperature have a profound impact on the productivity of fisheries and aquaculture. Sampling offshore ocean temperatures, particularly at depth, is challenging and expensive. As commercial fishermen are becoming more and more aware of the correlations between water temperature and harvest, opportunistic sampling from fishing gear can help fill this sampling need. Existing opportu ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Ship groundings can cause sever environmental damage to the delicate ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, and beaches. At present, survey work is performed by hand – a method that is inefficient and difficult to perform reliably. Improved bottom survey tools are clearly needed to evaluate the extent and type of damage and assist in determining remediation efforts. ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: NOAA and the National Weather Service maintain an immense network of automated maritime, surface, and upper-air observing stations throughout the world and at great expense. These automated stations provide regularly updated data for both short-term weather prediction and long-term climate models. Maritime and surface observations occur as frequently as every 10 to 20 minutes, ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Creare proposes to develop a self-sustained small-scale power conversion system to power NOAA’s weather monitoring network stations located in harsh uninhabited locations. Our miniature heat engine will take advantage of the existing year-round thermal gradients found between water and air in Arctic regions. Our baseline approach is the development of a compact Turbo-Rankine ...

The vision is to provide decision-makers with effective, fast, and inexpensive analysis tools to answer "What-If" and "What-Should" questions about manufacturing systems. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a modeling methodology with widespread contemporary use in manufacturing, and our strategy is to start with VSM as a deployment beachhead for the eventual deployment of a more generic manufacturing s ...

Ensuring the health of coastal marine ecosystems has emerged as one of the primary environmental concerns of this century. Frequent monitoring of water quality is required to establish baseline levels, allow identification of anomalies, and enable early detection of problems. Citizen science programs have been shown to be a highly effective method of monitoring water quality. Creare proposes to de ...

Commercially available unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) are not well designed to meet requirements for many atmospheric measurement applications, including deployment from ships, long endurance, and low cost. Multi-rotor UASs have recently gained popularity as a lowcost platform use in measurement and monitoring applications, but these systems have limited endurance and payload capabilities. Exist ...

Accurate marine weather nowcasts and forecasts are critical requirements for mariners to maintain situational awareness and ensure safe navigation for vessels, passengers, crew, and cargo. To best achieve this, reliable observations of atmospheric and sea conditions must be available at high spatial and temporal coverage. Unfortunately, existing approaches for marine weather observations are inade ...