Enter ASL‘s 2020 Early Career Scientist Contest to Win the Use of an Autonomous Scientific Echo Sounder for Three-Months

Guest post: Robert Bowen, ASL Environmental Sciences

The goal of this program is to support the oceanographic and limnological research community by lending, free of charge, a calibrated battery-powered Acoustic Zooplankton Fish Profiler™ (AZFP™) (either 125/200/455/769 kHz or 38/125/200/455 kHz configuration), plus mooring cage and battery for a three-month maximum deployment period along with the support from ASL’s team of experts. This instrument loan program is open to early-career scientists and engineers, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and others involved in oceanographic or freshwater work.

With the unmatched combination of multiple frequency operation, low power and extended endurance, the ASL AZFP offers a new, economical way of obtaining reliable measurements of marine environmental conditions in the water column. The AZFP can monitor the presence and abundance of zooplankton and fish within the water column by measuring the acoustic backscatter returns at multiple ultrasonic frequencies. Other sonar targets realized from the sonar backscatter data include bubbles and suspended sediments. The AZFP is a powerful tool for scientific research and environmental monitoring in oceans, lakes and rivers. For more details on the AZFP, refer to our product brochure. For a list of past contest winners, go to https://aslenv.com/assets/files/ASL-Newsletter-Spring-2020.pdf

To apply to this program, send a summary proposal (maximum length 4 pages) of your study and description on how it would benefit from the use of the AZFP’s capabilities. The selection criteria involve a number of factors including:

Relevance of the project: the measurements obtained should advance the understanding of physical and/or biological phenomena of importance to the aquatic environment
Innovation of the project including scientific merit
The ability of the party to deploy and recover the instrument

Interested applicants may send proposals before June 30, 2020.