2.688: Principles of Oceanographic Instrument Systems -- Sensors and Measurements

Fall | Graduate | 12 Units | Prereq: 2.671 and 18.075

Introduces theoretical and practical principles of design of oceanographic sensor systems. Transducer characteristics for acoustic, current, temperature, pressure, electric, magnetic, gravity, salinity, velocity, heat flow, and optical devices. Limitations on these devices imposed by ocean environment. Signal conditioning and recording; noise, sensitivity, and sampling limitations; standards. Principles of state-of-the-art systems being used in physical oceanography, geophysics, submersibles, acoustics discussed in lectures by experts in these areas. Day cruises in local waters during which the students will prepare, deploy and analyze observations from standard oceanographic instruments constitute the lab work for this subject.

Fall 2020 Update: Fully Remote Hands-On Class - We are planning for a fully remote class. Lab would be run ideally asynchronous to allow students to do it on their own time. We plan to set up some remote experiments using web cameras and connection approaches and also send “lab kits” to students.