Expendable Current Profiler for Measuring the Electric Field Induced by Ocean Currents

Abstract

In this study, an expendable current profiler sensor is developed to satisfy the actual requirements of an expendable current profiler for measuring electric fields induced by ocean currents. The electric field induced by ocean currents is an important process variable for investigating the motion characteristics of ocean currents; however, accurate measurement thereof is affected by various factors. Amplitude modulation is used to modulate the measured signals into narrow-band, single-frequency signals, thereby reducing the noise level of the sensor when measuring the electric field induced by ocean currents and for extracting ocean current signals in the nanovolt range under high background noise. In this study, front-end weak signal processing circuits are designed, strong interfering signals induced by the descent of the expendable current profiler probe are partially offset by a compensation circuit for the in-phase electric field component, and useful signals are extracted using a filter circuit. System on a programmable chip technology is used for the digital processing module of the expendable current profiler probe, thereby achieving rapid development, rapid optimization, and software/hardware integration of the digital processing module, as well as enhancing the overall performance of the system. In addition, dynamic data transmission technology using an enameled wire with a diameter of 0.1 mm and a length of 2 km is developed to achieve dynamic data transmission requirements for the expendable current profiler surface float. Finally, the ocean current electric field data and ocean temperature data are acquired through experiments.