# Presentation: 264313

## PMEL Argo Float Laboratory:Instrument Management and Testing

**PMEL Argo Float Laboratory:****Instrument Management and Testing**

- Donald Denbo
- Willa Zhu
- Greg Johnson
- Elizabeth Steffen
- Presented by: Eugene Burger

**Notes:**
Greg Johnson, PI, and Elizabeth Steffen are responsible for the deployment of ~80 Argo floats each year.  Don has designed, developed, and deployed a system for the management and testing of Argo floats.

## Outline

- Argo Program Overview
- Testing procedures
- Software Design
- Examples

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
In this talk I will cover 1) a brief outline of the International Argo Program, 2) summarize the float testing procedures, 3) briefly discuss the FloatLab software design, and 4) show several screen shots from the software.

On the right is the current active Argo floats (as of October 25, 2005).

## Argo Program Overview

- Global program to observe:
- Changing state of the upper ocean.
- Patterns of ocean climate variability.
- Heat & freshwater storage and transport.
- Array of 3,000 floats.  Presently 2060 floats active - 68.7% complete.
- Basic measurements of temperature and salinity in upper 2000m.
- International in scope.
- Data freely available.

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
The Argo program was begun to get enough direct measurements of the upper ocean to finally answer some long standing Oceanographic questions.  The floats deployed by PMEL are presently manufactured by Webb Research.

On the right is a cartoon of an Argo float.  The Hydraulic pump is used to change the buoyancy of the float allowing it to rise and fall in an autonomous fashion.

## Float Operation

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Each Argo float transmits a its data to an ARGOS satellite, remaining at the surface for 6-12 hours.
It then descends to its drift depth at 1000 db (decibar). 
The float then drifts along at depth for over 9 days.  It then descends to its profile depth, either 1200 or 2000 db.
A profile of temperature and salinity is then made going up to the surface.

Each float makes about 35 profiles each year.  So the final array of 3,000 floats will produce 105,000 profiles each year!

## Float Testing

**Float Testing**

- Testing needs to cover basic operations of the float.
- Automate testing procedures
- Speed up operations
- Record all test data
- Guarantee all steps are completed
- Manage float metadata and administrative information.

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Float testing needs to cover all the basic operations of the float.  These operations include:
-- Transmitting data to ARGOS
-- Moving the piston (to go up and down)
-- pumping up the air bladder (to lift the floats antenna further above the surface)
-- CTD (Salinity/Temperature) measurements.

** Make sure float doesn’t leak
** Battery/Current values are within specs (don’t want the battery to die early).

The automated testing software keeps a log of all communications (serial IO) with the float.  It also records by float and test all the results into a MySQL database.  The database can then be used to automatically create reports for use with the Argo program, track down possible causes for float failure (it keeps a record of all the batterys and equipment used in the float).

PICTURE:  Elizabeth is adjusting the ballast of the float.  The floats ballast needs to be within a few grams (out of 20 Kg!) or the float will either not make it to the surface or its profile depth.

## Tests

**Tests**

- Short Workout
- First check that transmitter is functioning
- Get CTD information
- Move piston in and out 4 counts
- Get voltage, current, and vacuum
- Air Bladder
- Pump air bladder
- Hold for ~16 hours
- Verify bladder pressure hasn’t dropped beyond specs.

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
The Short Workout is designed to quickly determine that the float can do most of its important functions.

The Air Bladder test is designed to determine if there is a leak in the bladder or pump system.  A leak can cause premature death by either draining the battery or not allowing the float to raise it antenna above the surface.

PICTURE:  Inserting the float electronics, hydraulic pump, batteries into the pressure casing.

## Tests (cont)

**Tests (cont)**

- Dock Test (before)
- Save mission parameters (up, down, ascend time, and transmission rep rate)
- Change mission parameters to test values.
- Dock Test (after)
- Move piston back to storage position
- Restore mission parameters
- Download from service ARGOS transmissions.
- Compute transmission statistics

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
The Dock test is designed to mimic the floats normal mission.  Transmit at the surface, descend to depth, drift, then profile to the surface.  Proper behavior is determined, in part, by getting the ARGOS transmissions, decoding the data, and computing transmission reception statistics.

PICTURE:  Connection the cable from the electronics and battery to the CTD head.

## Tests (cont)

**Tests (cont)**

- Salinity
- Get CTD serial number and manufacturer from float.
- Get 50 temperature/salinity samples from reference head and test float.
- Compute statistics (in Matlab).
- Display results.
- Final Check
- Repeat short workout
- Option to change mission parameters

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Salinity tests are accomplished by using a reference CTD module (nick named stubby) with a test float.  A system has been set up that feeds water of a known salinity to both reference head and test float at the same time.  The software gets Salinity,Temperature, Pressure values for both instruments simultaneously.  The results are compared and remedial action will occur if the float is out of spec.

The Final Check is a repeat of the Short Workout, with the option to change the mission parameters.

PICTURE:  Placing the CTD head on the float body.

## Tests (cont)

**Tests (cont)**

- Shipboard Check
- Check voltage, current and vacuum
- Check mission parameters
- Test transmitter
- Check CTD serial number
- Move piston in/out 4 counts
- Check voltage, current and vacuum

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
During shipping it is possible for a float to get out of spec if it has been handled roughly.  This test is designed to test all the major systems once the float has arrive at the ship it will be deployed from.

PICTURE:  Elizabeth is adjusting the vacuum of the float before sealing it.

## System Design

- MySQL

- FloatLab

- Matlab

- PostgreSQL

- ARGOS

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
The FloatLab software is designed to communicate with several external services.

ARGOS to get results from the Dock test or even results after deployment.
MySQL to store Metadata and test data (and retrieve).
Matlab:  Matlab is used to compute statistics from the Salinity calibration.  The matlab script is used externally so that the Scientists can easily change the calculations.

Argo float:  Communications with the Argo floats is accomplished using Serial IO.  A Java serial IO library (uses native code) also FloatLab to send commands and receive results from the float.  When the float is initially started it identifies itself and FloatLab uses that information to load that floats information from the database into the software.

## Implementation

**Implementation**

- Developed using Java version 1.4.2
- MySQL 4.1.x used for managing test and meta data.
- Apache telnet library used to communicate with ARGOS
- Serial I/O library & serial->USB converter purchased from SerialIO.
- Matlab version 7 used with Salinity tests.

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
The software developed here is pure Java, but uses some non-Java components.

PICTURE:  Elizabeth and Kristy are performing a Salinity calibration.

## Slide 12

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
MetaData page.  Very dense!  This page displays the metadata the describes the float and its current mission state.  Equipment is listed, Hull, board, deployment vessel, are among the information available.  The colored bars on the right are used to provide a quick visual determination of the critical Mission parameter values.  Each float and test can have any number of comments appended.  Here the comments indicate when the float metadata has been updated from a spreadsheet. (Metadata can also be exported using an XLS spreadsheet format.)

## Slide 13

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Short Workout:  Results from the transmitter test, CTD metadata information, piston motion, and the voltage, current, vacuum.

## Slide 14

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Air Bladder Test:  Testing time in hours:minutes:seconds displayed.  This test has a warning because he pressure change is -4 counts.  The software automatically pumps the air bladder to the target pressure, the float is then disconnected and sits for about 16 hours before the test finishes.

## Slide 15

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Reset To Dock:  Sets the float to the mission parameters necessary for the Dock test.  Information provided include the other floats that will be present in the Dock test.

## Slide 16

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Dock Results:  After the Dock test is complete this page is used to download results from the ARGOS system.  An integrated java telnet package is used to communicate with the server.  The transmission statistics are displayed on the left, parsed data is show on the right.

This page supports printing a summary.

## Slide 17

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Salinity Test:  Statistics of the test are display on the left, the right includes salinity and temperature plots.  These plots are made using SGT Beans.  Each panel is zoomable.

## Slide 18

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Shipping:  This page is used to manage the information relating to shipping the floats.  Since the floats are typically shipped in lots of 6-10 floats, Elizabeth often has to manage 2-3 shipments at once.  One shipment being but together while another is in transit and a third has just arrived.  Makes sure all the t’s are crossed and I’s dotted :-)

## Slide 19

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
Master Status:  This page displays all floats currently in the system that have not been deployed.  In this display 56 floats have not been deployed.  You can see which floats have had some problems and what state the shipping status in in.  Failure “red” on this page does not always equate to a bad float, tolerances are set pretty low.  The red in the Volt, Vac columns are primarily because the Lithium batteries have a 0.2 Volt initial drop and that flags an error.  The Vac problems are most likely due to the floats heating up during testing thus lowering the vacuum.

## Summary

**Summary**

- Automated float testing
- Increases reliability
- Reduces workload
- Improves test quality

- NOAATech 2006, Silver Spring, MD

- 2005-11-03

**Notes:**
PICTURE:  A group from the Golden_x0005_ Bear a training ship that deployed Argo floats for PMEL.