Two oceanographers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) are on the cusp of cracking the mysteries of red tides and marine-protected areas (MPAs). Recently, Jules Jaffe and Peter Franks, both professors at SIO, won two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) totaling nearly $2.5 million. This money will support their efforts to build and develop underwater robots that measure physical characteristics and currents in the ocean. Ultimately, this data will provide information about red tides and MPAs as well as oil spills, airplane crashes, algae blooms and other phenomena that have eluded researchers for so many years. The robots, called Autonomous Underwater Explorers (AUEs), will be about a liter in size and placed in groups underwater near an area of interest to oceanographers. Collaborators strive to understand “clouds” beneath the surface of the ocean. The exact makeup of these clouds is yet to be explained but is most likely microorganisms that live in a cluster and travel with ocean currents. These clouds are currently inaccessible from the surface of the water and not visible by satellite. “We’re sampling clouds by sticking a balloon on a wire and leaving it there for a long period of time — watching clouds go by,” Franks said. In order to effectively submerge and resurface these AUEs, Jaffe and Franks will need to perfect the size and shape of the robots to control buoyancy. By sinking and floating the AUEs they can lower and raise them from the surface of the water to their underwater destination. If researchers are able to place hundreds of these AUEs in vicinity, they are more likely to detect clouds and other underwater activity than if they are only able to place one or two robots at a time. They can collect data, take pictures and send all of the information to a computer where researchers can access all the data via the internet. The grants also support the analysis of the data after it is collected in order to understand water flow beneath the surface of the water. Computer algorithms will be designed in order to process the incoming data from the AUEs. The researchers hope to have a team of people trained to assimilate data from the AUE. Ultimately, all of this information will help oceanographers understand more about how and why conditions change in the ocean. MPAs, for example, will be easier to track if researchers understand how coastal currents move. MPAs serve as seed grounds for organisms to proliferate and then travel to other marine areas. If swarms of robots were allowed to collect data within an MPA, researchers could calculate the conditions within which these organisms thrive. Another underwater enigma that researchers hope to study with AUEs is red tides. Little is currently known about how and why red tides appear. With the new AUE devices, organisms can be sampled and analyzed to predict the location of red tides and the direction they are moving. Jaffe and Franks each have different areas of expertise and this makes them complement each other as partners on the project. Franks is a physical oceanographer with little training in robotics or engineering, while Jaffe is an expert in robotics and engineering. The two started working together about 15 years ago on a collaboration that has evolved into a marriage of sorts. “He described me the other day as being his wife at work,” Franks stated. “I’m the science end of things and he’s the instrument designer…. maybe we’re like Laurel and Hardy.” Jaffe also incorporates a science outreach and literacy component within his instrument design. The grant includes1 money to support students to build AUEs, collect data and analyze it via the Internet. “Generally, I’m interested in getting kids interested in science,” Jaffe said. His plan is to have high school teachers come to the SIO campus and create a curriculum for students about the AUEs. This curriculum will include ecology, engineering, physics and other related subjects. After mastering these subjects, students will build and deploy their own AUEs and then access their own data on the internet. “They would see the AUE online,” Jaffe said. He hopes to reinforce the discovery and invention components of science education — components that serve to excite students are science and inspire them to pursue it as a career. Whether it be for the study of underwater currents or the mentoring and education of future oceanographers, SIO researchers spend grant money in pursuit of the ocean.