CICEET Progress Report for the period 9/16/05 Through 3/15/06

Project Title: Enhancement and Demonstration of Satellite Telemetry System for Real Time Water Monitoring Throughout the NERRs Network
Principal Investigator(s): M. Blake Henke, North Star Science and Technology, LLC
Additional Investigator(s): Stan Mantel, Applied Micro Design, Inc.
Project Start Date: We started the project on September 1, 2004.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Tasks to meet objectives
N/A. The tasks stated above are explicit enough.

Progress on Tasks
The 12 demo units are all built, and project personnel (i.e., Blake Henke) have made site visits to each of the 6 demo sites. Further, all 12 of the demo units have been supplied to the 6 demo sites. Not all of them have been deployed to date. But so far, the following units have been deployed and are working flawlessly (see photos in separate document):

1 VA unit
2 MD units
1 DE unit
1 GA unit
1 SC unit

We are still waiting for Florida to install its units, but we have been told that this will happen shortly. The second SC, GA, VA, and DE units (we are told) will be deployed shortly.

Difficulties
Just getting the NERR sites to install/deploy their units.

Project Objectives for Next Reporting Period
1. Get all 12 demo units installed and operational, and monitor progress while paying for the airtime fees for the rest of the calendar year per unit per site.
2. Add additional ports on our hardware to allow users to hook up multiple sondes to a single RASSL device.

Objectives
Make sure that all 12 demo units are installed and operational.

Tasks to Meet Objectives
Not applicable.

Work Plan for Next Reporting Period
Encourage each site to install its demo units.

Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives
100%.

Preliminary Data
None to report here. However, if anyone wants to see the data being transmitted through our RASSL system, please go to www.sensorlink.biz. On the home page, enter “ciceet” as the user name and “demo” as the password (all lower case letters), and that will get you into the system. Once there, click on the “bullet mark” to the left of the unit that you want to view, and wait for the screen to refresh. When it does, that line of the table will be highlighted in blue. Once you see that, click on the “Messages/Data” button on the far left column, and you will then see the data for that particular site.

Dissemination
Publications: None
Workshops: None
Conferences: Restore America’s Estuaries, Seattle, WA (exhibitor)
Manuals, Protocols: None
Outreach Activities: None
Contact with End Users: Visit with Padilla Bay NERR site personnel, October 2005. Continued contact with Dr. Willy Reay of the Gloucester Point NERR site. Field visits with each of the 6 Demo sites.
Patent, Copyright, Invention Disclosure Activity: None

Expenditures
We had to divert the airtime fees for the 1st year of the project to engineering time to make the changes outlined in previous reports. As a result, we will be able to provide airtime to all of the demo sites for 1 year only, as opposed to the originally planned 2 years.

End User Advisor Feedback
Name: William Reay
Organization: Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary
Location: Gloucester Point, VA
Phone number: 804-684-7119
E-mail: wreay@vims.edu
1) At this stage, what are the potential applications for this research? We anticipate the real value of this system will be delivery of water quality and weather data from remote locations that are not conducive to alternative telemetry technologies. From a research perspective, data from these locations will allow us to target field activities to coincide with relatively short-term events (e.g., algal blooms, low DO events. Etc.). The ease of installations and the compactness of this technology is an asset for short-term deployments.

2) What, if anything, has changed about this project’s potential applicability since the last reporting period (not applicable for the first Progress Report). While firmware and software modifications required time investment by North Star Science and Technology, LLC, I feel that there was significant gain in product improvement to justify any delay in field deployments at the reserves.

3) Do you see key challenges that the researchers may want to address or keep in mind? None yet.

4) Does this report offer you enough information to adequately address the above questions? Yes. I would like to reiterate that the PI has remained in constant contact with me throughout this project and has made good efforts to improve both the product and grant delivery.

5) Other feedback? I would like to applaud the PI’s of this project for their routine project updates and for creating a climate that allows for free communication between the PI’s and the local reserves. I would also like to mention the level of professionalism that has been demonstrated throughout this project and the willingness on part of the PI’s to work with the reserves regarding product development and equipment deployment.