The objective is to establish a framework for cross-platform and cross-sectional biogeochemical monitoring for ERIC, encompassing sensors, data repositories, and all related components. This framework will enable calibration and validation of sensors across ERIC platforms, ensuring consistency in measurement standards.
The GEORGE project aims to deliver technologies enabling autonomous, systematic, and real-time characterization of the oceanic CO2 system. These technologies will facilitate measurement of CO2 fluxes via both mobile and fixed monitoring platforms. In collaboration with sensor manufacturers, the project will refine sensor technologies for platforms managed by the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) and foster the creation of new autonomous sensors and samplers. The resulting devices will achieve Technology Readiness Levels appropriate for commercialization by the project’s industrial partners.
Sensors developed will be adaptable for deployment on buoys, moorings, autonomous vehicles, and ships. These sensors will enable high-accuracy measurements of ocean carbon. The technology will be affordable, highly energy-efficient, and seamlessly integrable into current platforms, including the Argo float and the EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM).
The GEORGE project will enhance the observational capability of autonomous platforms by equipping them with state-of-the-art sensor technology and communication systems. In collaboration with platform manufacturers, GEORGE will integrate innovative autonomous surface and underwater vehicles into ERIC’s observational fleet, thereby expanding data collection capabilities.
In alignment with these goals, GEORGE will support three major European marine research organizations known as European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs): ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System), EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory), and Euro-Argo (the regional contribution to the global Argo float system). The aim is to align technologies, methods, and procedures for observing biogeochemical (chemical and biological) processes in the ocean.
A phase of the GEORGE project will take place at the PLOCAN test site, where emerging ocean observation technologies will be evaluated by deploying a prototype network of underwater sensors at the PLOCAN test facility. The installation will feature two acoustic nodes secured on the seabed with deadweight frames; one node will be linked to a lab-on-chip pH sensor. A third node will be mounted on an unmanned surface platform (AutoNaut) and will act as a repeater. A WGateway on the PLOCAN fixed platform will connect to three acoustic modems, facilitating communication and data transmission. This infrastructure will be set up temporarily, without anchors or effluent discharge, and all equipment will be fully retrieved after the trial is complete.
