Sensors Group
The Sensors Group is at the forefront of research, development and introduction into service of novel sensors and instruments for ocean science. The Group has grown significantly over the last six years, winning major research awards from the NERC, EPSRC and the EU. Increasingly, as the technologies become commercially viable, the Group has engaged with early-stage exploitation funding, working with a number of companies with the aim of bringing its innovations to market.
The Group traces its history to the proud and successful instrument development activities at the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, Surrey. Several of the current staff were associated with major projects at Wormley including GLORIA, a ground-breaking long-range towed sidescan sonar. The work at Wormley on high-performance marine meteorological measurement systems for flux studies, as well as mean meteorology, continues at Southampton.
While at Wormley, investigations into the determination of dissolved nitrate concentration in the ocean began as a collaborative project between engineers and chemists. The nitrate ion concentration affects the absorbance of ultraviolet light, but unfortunately so do several other constituents of seawater, disentangling these factors, and obtaining a good calibration took several years. This experience in developing an optical sensor for chemical measurements provided the basis for the Group’s current portfolio of optical and chemical sensors.
The Group works collaboratively with scientists and engineers from many fundamental disciplines, such as chemistry, optics, electronics as well as molecular biologists and marine scientists. With colleagues at the University of Southampton the Group is a partner in the Centre for Marine Microsystems.
Members of the Group have skills in optics, electronics, software engineering, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and mechanical engineering as well as the broad discipline of ‘ocean engineering’, as the devices produced must withstand the rigours of the ocean.
