senseOCEAN brings together the leading sensor developers from academia and industry across Europe to enable a quantum leap in worldwide in situ ocean biogeochemical sensor technology. It will produce fundamental innovations in analytical sciences fusing together new techniques for microfabrication, system integration, self calibration and cost-effective mass production. It will deliver a new product; an integrated multifunctional biogeochemical sensor package that is small and low-cost yet will be rugged and high performance. This product will have a major impact on the ability of EU SMEs and industry to compete in the growing market of environmental metrology and networked ecosystems. The product will measure with high precision and accuracy all of the following: the oceanic carbonate system, nutrients, the micronutrient iron, oxygen, nitrous oxide, trace metals (specifically the micronutrient iron) together with optically observed parameters including photosynthetically active radiation, particulate organic carbon, Chlorophyll a, primary production, coloured dissolved inorganic matter and transmission. As such it will quantify at scientifically relevant performance all of the major state variables in ocean biogeochemical processes. These will be observed with a new generation of sensors using lab on a chip, micro electrochemical, optode, and optical sensor technologies. Crucially the system will be small, integrated and suitable for mass production enabling it to be scaled and used on mass deployed platforms such as the profiling float array (Argo) and on many other platforms. To enable this we will develop modular interfaces. The product will be developed in line with state of the art data management practice, which we will continue to develop in collaboration with the international community. We will deliver a near real time and also a quality controlled archived data product with the outputs from our new sensor technology.
