FLIPPER:
Validation for Remote Ocean Imaging
Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Originating Technology/NASA Contribution
In order to better understand our solar system and the
ways it supports life, scientists and researchers at NASA
study the planets. Of course, one of the planets on which
NASA focuses most of its research is the Blue Planet, Earth,
since this is the only one currently known to support life;
and it is also, for all practical purposes, the most accessible.
These scientists and researchers know that one of the determining
factors in the planet’s ability to support life is the
same factor that makes the Blue Planet blue: water. Therefore,
NASA researchers have a focused interest in understanding
Earth’s oceans and their ability to continue sustaining
life.
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The
many shades of blue and blue-green in this image
indicate that marine plant life (phytoplankton)
is in full bloom around Iceland. This image is
from NASA’s Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor
(SeaWiFS) Project, whose goal is to provide quantitative
data on global ocean bio-optical properties to
the Earth science community. |
A critical objective in this study is to understand the
global processes that control the changes of carbon and
associated living elements in the oceans. Since oceans
are so large, one of the most widely used methods of this
research is remote sensing—using satellites to observe
changes in the ocean color that may be indicative of changes
occurring at the surface. Major changes in carbon are due
to photosynthesis conducted by phytoplankton, showing,
among other things, which areas are sustaining life. Although
valuable for large-scale pictures of an ocean, remote sensing
really only provides a surface, and therefore incomplete,
depiction of that ocean’s sustainability.
True and complete testing of the water requires local testing
in conjunction with the satellite images in order to generate
the necessary algorithm parameters to calculate ocean health.
For this reason, NASA has spearheaded research to provide
onsite validation for its satellite imagery surveys.
Partnership
Under a NASA
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant with Stennis
Space Center, Ciencia,
Inc., of East
Hartford, Connecticut, developed the Fluorescence Lifetime
Profiler of Photochemical Efficiency in Real-time, or FLIPPER,
to assist in understanding the global processes controlling
the fluxes of carbon and associated biogenic elements in
the oceans. Biologists and oceanographers benefit from
this new device that provides real-time data of water properties
essential to understanding water on a global scale. Now
being used to monitor the Earth’s oceans, the results of
this technological partnership are also finding homes in
applications as broad as agricultural analysis and pharmaceutical
manufacturing.
Dr. Salvador Fernandez, president of Ciencia, Inc., praises
the NASA SBIR program and how it has helped bring the technology
to fruition. “This project is exemplary of the goals of
the SBIR program,” he said. “On one hand, we have been
able to provide NASA with a unique technology, essential
to meeting its mission, while at the same time creating
core technology that [is enabling] us to develop new products
for very different applications, such as drug discovery
and process analysis in the pharmaceutical industry.”
While not all of these goals have been fully realized,
they are still in the works and quite near fruition; the
NASA technology and funding will help them come to life,
while, in the meantime, the oceanographic surveying tool,
FLIPPER, is already advancing the study of the Earth’s
oceans.
Product Outcome
FLIPPER is a fully submersible oceanographic vertical profiler
for in situ, or onsite, measurements. It is being assessed
by NASA researchers and the oceanographic research community
to determine its ability to monitor photosynthetic parameters
in marine phytoplankton for oceanographic, estuarine, limnological,
and riverine research; environmental monitoring of phytoplankton
populations; ocean optical properties research; and studies
of fisheries and ecosystems.
FLIPPER is an effective vertical profiler for these types
of research. Other vertical profiling methods can be inaccurate
and confusing. Instruments based on chlorophyll fluorescence
intensity, for example, cannot provide accurate information
on chlorophyll concentration; the quantum yield of chlorophyll
fluorescence is variable, and intensity alone does not
provide any information about photosynthesis status. FLIPPER
permits, for the first time, direct determination of in
vivo chlorophyll fluorescence quantum yield in situ. This
is an essential parameter in the study of ocean and coastal
ecosystems, one that has been shown to be inversely related
to the rate at which phytoplankton biomass is formed.
The concentration of chlorophyll in the oceans presents
a major detection challenge, because in order to obtain
accurate values of photosynthetic parameters, the intensity
of light used to excite fluorescence must be kept very
low so as not to disturb the photosynthetic system. Several
innovations in fluorometric instrumentation were made in
order to make it possible for FLIPPER to reach the required
low-detection limit. These innovations include a highly
efficient optical assembly with an integrated flow-through
sample interface, and a high-gain, low-noise electronic
detection subsystem.
The instrument also incorporates means for self-calibration
during operation and electronic hardware and software for
control, acquisition, and analysis of data and communications.
The electronic circuitry is highly miniaturized and designed
to minimize power demand. The instrument is housed in a
package that can withstand the water pressure at the maximum
depth of 300 meters. All of these innovations allow FLIPPER
to perform as other ocean-profiling devices cannot.
Within FLIPPER, a light-emitting diode excites fluorescence
in the sample flow cell, which is placed at one focal point
of an ellipsoidal reflector. A photomultiplier tube is
placed at the other focal point. This optical arrangement
enables highly efficient collection of fluorescence emitted
over all polar directions. The excitation is modulated
at a specific frequency, and the phase shift between
the excitation light and the emitted fluorescence is measured
by a detection method in which the signal is down-converted.
The fluorescence lifetime can be computed from the known
relationship among the fluorescence lifetime, phase shift,
and modulation frequency.
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FLIPPER
is a fully submersible oceanographic vertical profiler
for onsite measurements. The electronic circuitry
is designed to minimize power demand, and the instrument
housing can withstand water pressure at a maximum
depth of 300 meters. The instrument also incorporates
means for self-calibration, and highly miniaturized
electronic hardware and software for control, acquisition,
and analysis of data and communications. |
In operation, the instrument measures fluorescence intensity
and lifetime repeatedly, according to a schedule established
during an instrument set-up process, in which the instrument
is connected to a host computer. Once programmed, the instrument
is disconnected from the computer and remains in an inactive,
quiet state as it is placed in the ocean. The measurement
process is started by use of a magnetically actuated switch.
Measurements taken by the instrument are recorded in a
memory module that can hold data from more than 28,000
measurements. The set of data from each measurement is
time-stamped and includes a pressure/depth datum. Switching
the instrument off terminates the measurements and prepares
the instrument for the next series. At the end of a series
of measurements, the instrument is reconnected to the host
computer and the measurement data are uploaded from the
instrument’s memory module to the computer. These data
provide researchers with never-before-seen accuracy.
The development of FLIPPER is an important advance for
biological oceanographic research, for phytoplankton ecology
studies, and for ground truth of primary production estimates
made from satellite ocean color measurements, but the technologies
developed for these experiments are rapidly finding uses
in other fields as well.
Based on the core technological development for FLIPPER,
Ciencia has entered into two commercialization agreements
that represent non-equity investments in research and development
and engineering services directed at new product creation.
Ciencia has received a significant investment from HTS
Biosystems, Inc., of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, for a product
development effort that will incorporate frequency-domain
technology developed under the NASA work into instrumentation
for drug discovery.
In addition, Ciencia has also entered into another product
development agreement with an international company for
the making of a sensor for online process analysis of powder
mixtures in the pharmaceutical industry. A feasibility
study funded by this commercialization partner has been
completed, and design of a system for beta site testing
is underway.
This research has generated a significant amount of interest
and already has investors clamoring to get involved. Additional
applications include precision farming; noninvasive clinical
instrumentation and analytical instrumentation for food
safety testing; environmental analysis; and noninvasive,
real-time, online processing monitoring for food manufacturing.
Ciencia recently signed an agreement with Global Imaging
of Japan, based in Chiba, that now controls international
distribution of FLIPPER.
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