Tutorial Chair

Dr. Eberhard Sauter

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

Email: tutorials(at)oceans09ieeebremen.org

T5 - High-Frequency Over-The-Horizon Radar Applications in Oceanography

During the last decade, High-Frequency (HF) radar remote sensing of oceanographic parameters became more and more important. These radar systems are able to monitor large areas of the ocean, far behind the horizon. HF radar networks are currently being installed along the East- and West Coasts of the US to contribute to the future monitoring systems (NOAA's IOOS program). This tutorial
is split into three parts:
A. Basic Physics of HF Radar:
Electromagnetic wave propagation, both ground wave and sky wave, dependency on ionospheric conditions, scattering processes at the ocean surface, algorithms to derive surface current maps, ocean wave spectra, and wind direction.
B. Technical Solutions:
Range resolution by Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) modulation and by pulses, azimuthal resolution by beam forming and by direction finding; advantages and limitations of the different technologies; algorithms to reduce the impact of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).
C. Application of HF Radar Monitoring Systems:
How to set up a monitoring system by combining fine-scale ocean current models with HF radar measurements by data assimilation as demonstrated within the European project "European Radar Ocean SEnsing" (EuroROSE); algorithms required for HF radar networks; application of HF radars for ship detection and tracking.

Presenter’s Bio - Klaus-Werner Gurgel

Klaus-Werner Gurgel (IEEE M'94) received the diploma in electrical engineering from the University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany, in 1980 and the Ph.D. in geosciences from the University of Hamburg, in 1993.
From 1980 to 1985, he was responsible for the technical development and deployment of the University of Hamburg's HF radar during numerous experiments, which at that time was based on NOAA's Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar (CODAR). From 1985 to 1993, he was working on a ship borne version of the CODAR for applications at the Arctic Front. In 1996, he developed a new HF radar system called WEllen RAdar (WERA) within the European Union (EU)funded project "Surface Current And Wave Variability Experiment" (SCAWVEX), which was later on used within the EU funded projects "European Radar Ocean SEnsing" (EuroROSE) and "Weather Information Network, Guidance, and Supervision onboard Ships" (Wings-for-Ships). After a technology transfer to industry, WERA is now commercially available and applied by several Universities and Institutions worldwide.

Dr. Gurgel currently is a research scientist at the University of Hamburg, Institute of Oceanography, and involved within numerous projects on radar remote sensing. Since November 2004, he is Adjunct Professor at the Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Fl, USA. Dr. Gurgel is a member of IEEE Oceanic Engineering, Geoscience & Remote Sensing, and Antennas and Propagation Society.


T 6 - The Stochastic Matched Filter: applications to de-noising and detection

In several domains of signal processing, such as detection or de-noising, it may be interesting to provide a second-moment characterization of a noise-corrupted signal in terms of uncorrelated random variables. Doing so, the noisy data could be described by its expansion into a weighted sum of known vectors by uncorrelated random variables. Depending on the choice of the basis vectors, some random variables are carrying more signal of interest information than noise ones. This is the case, for example, when a signal disturbed by a white noise is expanded using the Karhunen-Loève expansion. In these conditions, it is possible either to approximate the signal of interest by keeping only its associated random variables, or to detect a signal in a noisy environment with an analysis of the random variable power. The purpose of this tutorial is to present such an expansion, available for both the additive and multiplicative noise cases, and its application to detection and de-noising. This noisy random signal expansion is known as the stochastic matched filter, where the basis vectors are chosen so as to maximize the signal to noise ratio after processing.
This tutorial is divided into three parts:
- The first part concerns the theory itself: the stochastic matched filter theory will be described for 1-D discrete-time signals and its extension to 2-D discrete-space signals. Furthermore, a study will be realized on two different noise cases: the white noise case and the speckle noise case.
- In the second part, the stochastic matched filter will be described in a detection context and this method will be confronted with signals resulting from underwater acoustics. The results obtained are then compared with those resulting from the classical matched filter theory.
- In the last part, the stochastic matched filter will be presented in a de-noising context. The de-noising being performed by a limitation to order Q of the noisy data expansion, two criteria to determine Q will be introduced. Experimental results on real SAS data are given to evaluate the performances of such an approach.
This tutorial is intended for people or scientists connected with 1-D/2-D signal or array processing, and interested to have a fly-over about these effective methods.

Presenter’s Bio - Philippe Courmontagne

Philippe Courmontagne was born in 1970. He received the Ph. D. degree in Physics at the University of Toulon (France) in 1997. In 1999, he became Professor in a French electronic engineering school: the Institut Supérieur de l’Électronique et du Numérique (ISEN Toulon, France), in the field of signal processing and image processing. He joined in 2001 the Provence Materials and Microelectronics Laboratory (L2MP UMR CNRS 6137), which is a unit of the French national research center (CNRS). In 2005, he obtained his Habilitation (HDR - Habilitation to Supervise Research) for his works in the field of noisy signal expansion. In 2007, he has been elected to the degree of IEEE Senior Member in recognition of professional standing for his works in the field of signal de-noising (SAR, SAS images), signal detection in noisy environment and signal transmission.


T 7 - Acoustical Underwater Communication Principles

The main objectives are to present fundamentals and state-of-the-art signaling and processing techniques suitable for acoustical underwater communications. Focus is on physical layer issues, but underwater networking issues are also covered. The whole range from biologically inspired signaling via information-theoretical inspired signaling to practical modulation schemes will be considered.
Outline of Material to be presented
• Applications of acoustical underwater communications
• Channel characterization (channel measurement strategies, ray tracing, channel emulation, multipath propagation, delay spread, Doppler spread)
• Biologically inspired signaling (whale sounds)
• Information-theoretical inspired signaling (capacity bounds, superposition coding)
• Single-carrier transmission principles (PSK, QAM, CPM, error performance)
• Multi-carrier transmission principles (OFDM, generalized multi-carrier signaling)
• Synchronization and channel estimation
• Equalization
• Mobile underwater communications and adaptation to variable channel conditions
• Array processing (MIMO systems)
• Underwater networking

Intended Audience
Scientists and Engineers, who are interested in detailed knowledge on the fundamentals of underwater communications.

Presenter’s Bio - Peter Adam Hoeher

1986 Master Degree (Dipl.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
1990 Doctoral Degree (Dr.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
1986-1998 Research Assistant and Project Leader, German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen
1992 Post-Doc, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, USA
1998-1999 Teaching Positions at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Satellite Communications) and Bochum (Digital Modulation and Channel Coding)
Since 1998 Professor for Information and Coding Theory, University of Kiel, Germany
Visiting Researcher at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1994), Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada (1997), and the City University of Hong Kong (2002,2008)
More than 150 publications in international journals and conference proceedings, more than 2000
citations of the Top10 papers
More than 40 patents in 12 patent families
Associated editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications (1999-2006)
Vice-chairman of the German Chapter of the IEEE Commun. Society (since 2004)
Proponent and member of the excellence cluster “The Future Ocean” of the University of Kiel
Member of the VDE/ITG Expert Committee 5.1 (since 2004)
Member of the VDE/ITG Technical Committee “Algorithms for Signal Processing” and “Applied
Information Theory” (since 1999 and 2003)
Managing Director of the Institute of Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of
Kiel (2006-2008)
Co-founder and Managing Director of ComSupport GbR (since 2005)
Experience in continuing education in engineering and science since 1994 (Carl Cranz Academy, Oberpfaffenhofen)


T 8 - AUV Technology and Application Basics

AUV Application Basics is a short course that provides an overview of current AUV technologies and operations. The objective is to establish a basic understanding of what currently available AUV systems can provide and what best practices in use are. The class is targeted at scientists interested in using AUVs for oceanographic applications. The attendee will gain basic understanding of AUV types, technologies, terminology, and navigation techniques, including discussion of the comparative strengths of AUVs and alternative methods of data collection. The attendee will also be provided an understanding of tradeoffs in AUV operations, including power estimation, endurance considerations, and mission structure to acquire the desired data sets. Key points are illustrated by applications and results from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's (MBARI) Dorado AUV and other AUV operations. Topics include: Basic AUV technology, AUV at-sea Operation, Payload Considerations, Mission Planning, Upper and Mid-Water AUV missions, Benthic and Mapping AUV missions, Data Collection and Reduction, AUV Integration into Sampling Networks, and a look at coming AUV advances. The interactive format, using the materials provided, allows the attendee discussion time for relevance and demonstration purposes regarding real or potential AUV plans.

Intended Participants:
This class is intended for scientists interested in applying AUVs to particular problems, persons interested in AUV applications and the impact of AUV technology, as well as graduates in oceanographic fields seeking a broad understanding regarding the application of AUV platforms.

Presenter’s Bio - William J. Kirkwood

Bill is currently the Associate Director of Engineering at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) located in Monterey Bay, California. Bill has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a MS in Computer Science which he has applied to controls and automation of electromechanical systems and
robotics since 1978. Bill has been with MBARI for 16 years as a lead mechanical engineer and program manager developing the Tiburon remotely operated vehicle and Dorado class autonomous underwater vehicles. Bill focus currently is developing underwater instrumentation for science to look at hydrates and anthropogenic CO2 ocean acidification issues.

T11 - Application of microsensors in the marine environment

Microsensors have been developed to measure a wide range of substances and parameters. Microsensors have a minute tip diameter, typically only 1/10 of the human hair.
The small size gives the microsensors some extra-ordinary characteristics:
· they can penetrate into soft materials like seafloor sediment without disturbing the processes to be studied
· they can have a fast response (sub-second)
· they equilibrate with temperature very rapidly (sub-second)
· they consume very little analyte and are thus very insensitive to stirring
· they can work under extreme hydrostatic pressure (full ocean).
These characteristics make the sensors unique for a variety of applications in marine research and monitoring. The tutorial will explain in detail about
· The eddy correlation technique for oxygen flux measurements. This relatively new technique (Berg et al. 2003) relies on the simultaneous measurement of the fluctuating oxygen concentration and fluctuating vertical flow velocity in eddies to calculate the transport of oxygen between the water phase and the seafloor. This method requires very fast-responding oxygen sensors with a small physical layout, and Clark-type microsensors are currently the only sensors available that can meet these requirements. The theory behind the method and the instrumentation to implement it will be described.
· Fast water column oxygen profiles. Fast profiling oxygen measurements in the water column require sensors with a fast response to oxygen and with a fast temperature equilibration. The minute tip size of microsensors enables these features, and at the same time, the tiny tip membrane is very resilient to hydrostatic pressure. With pressure compensation, the sensors can work down to full oceanic depth. These features make oxygen microsensors ideal candidates for this application and the theoretical implications of this will be discussed.
· Microprofiling in seafloor sediments. Sediments are often highly stratified with layers with very different chemical conditions in close proximity. Microsensors allow the study of the distribution of chemical compounds in great spatial detail to elucidate the biogeochemical transformations in sediments.
Ultra-low oxygen measurements. Some areas of the ocean have such a low oxygen concentration that it can be difficult to determine whether it is actually zero. With micro-sensor technologies, it is possible to construct a sensor, which can intermittently block and un-block the access of oxygen to the sensor, which allows a detection limit of 5 nM (1.6*10‑4 mg/l). The sensor principle will be discussed and data presented.

References: Berg, P. et al. 2003. Marine Ecology Progress Series 261:75–83

The target audience of the half-day tutorial is the marine environmental monitoring and research community. The tutorial will aim to provide the audience a basic understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of microsensor technology, and the possibilities and limitations in the different applications will be discussed. Various in situ instruments carrying microsensors will be displayed.
The tutorial will include a practical demonstration, which allows the audience to get hands-on experience with the technology.

Presenter’s Bio - Lars R. Damgaard

Lars R. Damgaard made his Ph.D. thesis at the Department of Microbiology, University of Aarhus, Denmark, in 1997. After two years in a post.doc. position, Lars became a co-founder of Unisense A/S. Unisense is a company dedicated to providing microsensor technology to the world-wide scientific community, and Lars is responsible for the development of the electronics and in situ research equipment used in conjunction with Unisense microsensors. Furthermore, Lars has been the PI for Unisense on the COBO project, which is a EU project concerned with coastal benthic observatories as well as on a national Danish research project, BIOFLOW.

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T13 - Precise Bathymetry Using Multibeam Echosounder

The lecture gives an introduction to operations with multibeam echosounder, as well as the positioning with high precision GNSS-systems and the attitude determination with inertial measurement systems and GNSS multi antennae arrays. The integration of the positioning, attitude determination and depth measurements in a modular real time system, the error budget and limiting conditions will be presented using examples from actual projects at the HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU). Additionally the lecture is focused on aspects related to data processing, modeling and visualization.
The examples present projects onboard the survey craft LEVEL-A of the HCU: With the length of 7.5m and a draft of less than 50 cm the boat is optimized to operate in shallow waters. The LEVEL-A is mainly used for education and research purposes. The equipment installed onboard of LEVEL-A offers best conditions for practical exercises: RESON Multibeam SeaBat 8101, INNOMAR Parametric Sub-Bottom Profiler SES-2000 fan incl. Side-Scan, IxSEA motion sensor Octans III, GNSS-Javad-Gyro-4 (GPS, GLONASS), Marine Magnetics Mini Explorer, RESON Sound Velocity Probe SVP 15 and other instruments. Software packages as PDS 2000, QPS Qinsy and Qloud, WinProfile, ISE for SES-2000, Geo++ ® GNNET-RTK and CARIS HIPS/SIPS/GIS are available for survey planning, measuring, and data analysis.
Despite the high accuracy of all used sensors (position, heading, heave, roll, pitch and sound velocity), the main problem is to integrate these complementary sensors with the sonar systems with reference to timing and their relative locations to obtain reliable Digital Terrain Models (DTM). The data delivered by the IMSS components (GNSS-Javad-Gyro-4, Motion Sensor OctansIII, IMU Inertial Measurement Unit) are integrated by the soft-ware GNNET-RTK developed by Geo++ GmbH, Garbsen.
The examples will be taken from measurements for archaeology, wreck search, sand wave and gas detection in shallow waters in Germany.

Content
- Standards of hydrographic surveys
o General remarks, classification of hydrographic surveys, positioning, depths, special surveys, data attributes, elimination of dubious data, guidelines for quality control.
- PDGPS applications in hydrography
o Frequently used DGPS terms
o Differential corrections: SAPOS with and without area-based correction parameters, user-managed base stations.
o optimization of hydrographic positioning
- Attitude determination with
o heave/roll/pitch sensors
o GNSS multi antennae array
- Fundamental theory of acoustic waves
o sound velocity in water
o refraction of acoustic waves from one medium to another
- Function of echo sounders
- Multibeam echosounder
o Function
o advantages, disadvantages, possible errors
o error budget
- calibration of echo sounders, methods of tide correction for sounded depths
- Projects

Presenter’s Bio - Volker Böder

Prof. D. Volker Böder was born in 1965 in Rotenburg/Wümme. He graduated in geodesy from the University Hannover in 1994. His doctoral thesis from 2002 at the University of Hannover is about the precise positioning and attitude determination in marine applications. He received his Assessor Degree from the Government of the Federal State of Lower Saxonia in 2005. Since 2005 he is professor for practical geodesy and hydrography at the HafenCity University, Hamburg (HCU). The M.Sc. Hydrography course at the HCU is English spoken. The course is certified with highest level Category A –academic- of the International Advisory Board of the FIG/IHO/ICA.
Volker Böder is board member of the German Hydrography Society (Deutsche Hydro-graphische Gesellschaft, DHyG) and editor of the “Hydrographische Nachrichten”. Addi-tionally he is member of the working group AK3 –measuring methods and systems- of the DVW. In the last years as well as in 2009 Prof. Böder gave a one-week-lecture at the UPM Madrid, Spain. Each year he organizes the International Hydrography Summer Camp, which is free for all interested students.