Improvement of the SIGMA-1 Measuring Complex for Studies of Langmuir Circulations and Surface Wave Breaking in the Black Sea

The purpose of this article is to describe modernization of SIGMA-1 measuring complex. The modernization was performed to improve the quality of research of the wave breaking mechanisms and Langmuir circulations at the stationary oceanographic platform MHI. The article deals with the effects of natural oscillations of the device and changes in the housing position on the measured components of the flow velocity vector. The device natural oscillations are recorded by a position monitoring system consisting of a set of sensors: accelerometers and a magnetometer. A model study of permissible rotations and maximum tilt angles showed that in the absence of an angular velocity sensor, the uncorrected measured components of the flow velocity vector can differ significantly from the actual ones. To solve this problem, MPU-9250 module with an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer was chosen; Arduino Nano was used as a microcontroller system. Based on the theory of calculating spatial angles, a program for correcting the measured components of velocity pulsations for the new module was developed in Arduino IDE programming environment. The optimal program (Magneto) for calibrating the magnetometer was selected as the most accurate and satisfying the conditions of use at the oceanographic platform. The main stages of sensor calibration are described. The flow velocity components measured in the device coordinate system are adjusted for the values of tilt angles, angular and linear velocities, the calculation is performed using the eddy correlation method. The developed system has been tested on specialized equipment in laboratory setting and has the following characteristics: within the range –30…+30° the maximum pitch error is 0.31°; the maximum roll error is 0.42°; the maximum magnetometer error is 2.09°. The achieved characteristics allow significant increase in the accuracy of measuring the velocity vector and reliability estimate of influence of various physical processes on the vertical exchange.