Title :
RALPH-a dynamic instrument for sediment dynamics
Author_Institution :
Geol. Survey of Canada, Dartmouth, NS., Canada
Abstract :
A seafloor instrument, RALPH, has been developed and used at the Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic). RALPH was designed to study sediment dynamics and the seafloor processes involved. Over the past 17 years, it has grown from a small tripod with a crude tape recorder to a system comprising 5 computers, 800 Mbytes of disk storage and many sensors, RALPH has been deployed in the intertidal zone and on the continental shelf. It is capable of continuous monitoring for several months. It logs time series of waves, tides, and near bed flows. It takes time lapse photographs of the seabed to monitor bedform migration and also images the seafloor acoustically. Suspended sediment is monitored acoustically and optically
Keywords :
geophysical equipment; ocean waves; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; seafloor phenomena; sedimentation; sediments; tides; turbidimetry; RALPH; bedform migration; coast; continental shelf; continuous monitoring; data acquisition; dynamic instrument; geophysical equipment; intertidal zone; marine sediment; mechanical property; near bed flow; ocean; ocean wave; seabed; seafloor geology; sediment dynamics; sedimentation; suspended sediment; tide; turbidity; Geology; Instruments; Monitoring; Protection; Sampling methods; Sea floor; Sea measurements; Sediments; Storms; Tides;
Conference_Titel :
OCEANS '96. MTS/IEEE. Prospects for the 21st Century. Conference Proceedings
Conference_Location :
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3519-8
DOI :
10.1109/OCEANS.1996.568317
