Dataset: VPR cast sheets

Name: VPR cast data sheets from R/V Oceanus, R/V New Horizon OC473, NH1208 in the western N. Atlantic and eastern Pacific, 2011-2012 (OAPS project)
Published: 2011-09-27
Keywords: oceans

Cite This Dataset

Project:

Horizontal and Vertical Distribution of Thecosome Pteropods in Relation to Carbonate Chemistry in the Northwest Atlantic and Northeast Pacific (OAPS)

Program:

Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability NSF-Wide Investment (SEES): Ocean Acidification (formerly CRI-OA) (SEES-OA)

Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB)

Principal Investigator:

Gareth Lawson (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI)

BCO-DMO Data Manager:

Nancy Copley (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI)

Version Date:

2011-09-27

Validated:

Yes

Current State:

Final no updates expected

VPR cast data sheets from R/V Oceanus, R/V New Horizon OC473, NH1208 in the western N. Atlantic and eastern Pacific, 2011-2012 (OAPS project)

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Description

OC473: Forty four Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) casts were made on this cruise. The data sheets contain information including date, time, station, cast number, location, raw and processed filenames, magnification, start and stop frames, and interesting observations made during the extration of regions of interest (roi's) with special attention to krill and pteropods. A typical cast entered the water, descended to about 10 meters where is rested for several minutes while the ctd was turned on, then it was raised to the surface and lowered to depth, usually 1000 meters. Finally, it was raised to the surface. Only the descent from surface to depth was extracted. Start and stop frame numbers indicate those frames of the video where the instrument was descending, not including the initial 10 meter drop.

NH1208: 46 casts in the northern Pacific Ocean. See cruise report.

Data Files

File
vpr_logs.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 222 bytes) MD5:09a1758fef22bd92613500fa12a35b5b Primary data file for dataset ID 3545

More Information about this dataset

Funding Sources

Funding Source	Award Number
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences	OCE-1041068

Deployments

Deployment	Synonyms	Start Date	Platform	Investigator
NH1208		2012-08-09	R/V New Horizon	Gareth Lawson (Chief Scientist)	data info
OC473		2011-08-07	R/V Oceanus	Gareth Lawson (Chief Scientist) Zhaohui Aleck Wang (Co-Principal Investigator) Peter H. Wiebe (Co-Principal Investigator) Ms Dicky Allison (BCO-DMO Data Manager)	data info

Instruments

Video Plankton Recorder

Supplied Description:

Instrument Type

Generic Name: Video Plankton Recorder

Acronym: VPR

Generic Description:

The Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) is a video-microscope system used for imaging plankton and other particulate matter in the size range from a few micrometers to several centimeters. The VPR is essentially an underwater microscope. It consists of four video cameras (with magnifying optics) synchronized at 60 fields per second (fps) to a red-filtered 80 W xenon strobe (pulse duration = 1 microsecond). The current lens on each camera can be adjusted to provide a field of view between 5 mm and 10 cm. Use of higher magnification lenses is currently being explored for viewing protozoans (less than 1 micrometer resolution). The four cameras are set for concentric viewing fields so that a range of up to four magnifications can be viewed simultaneously, allowing a wide size range of plankton to be sampled. Depth of field is adjusted by the lens aperture setting, and the volume sampled in each video field ranges from about 1 ml to 1 liter, depending on lens settings. The cameras have been configured for stereoscopic viewing as well.A strobe on the other arm illuminates the imaged volume and flashes 60 times per second, producing 60 images per second of the particles and plankton in the water. The images are then saved internally on a computer hard disk and later plotted.

Deployment: Most commonly, the VPR is mounted in a frame and lowered into the water from the stern of the ship. Sometimes, a CTD also is mounted next to the VPR to collect depth, temperature, and salinity information at the same time as each video image. The instrument is lowered down through the water to a maximum depth of 350 meters to generate a profile of plankton/particle abundance and taxon group along with temperature and salinity. In addition to the towed configuration for mapping plankton distributions, it is possible to deploy the VPR in a fixed position (on a mooring) for viewing plankton swimming behaviors in two or three dimensions. The VPR instrument system has been used in both configurations, and deployment on ROVs has been proposed.

This definition was taken from the WHOI Ocean Instruments Web site and from a US GLOBEC Newsletter.

Parameters

Date and time formats are described in python strftime() syntax.

Supplied Name	Supplied description	Supplied Units	Standard Name
cruise_id	cruise identifier		cruise_id

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Database

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Dataset: VPR cast sheets