The prototype has been successfully field tested.
A device capable to record temperature variations to an accuracy of a thousandth of a degree and transmits data via GPS to monitor climate changes and bottom water circulation in Lake Baikal has been designed and developed at the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics SB RAS. The authors of the patent are S.A. Kazantsev PhD (Tech.), sr. research scientist, and A.A. Kal’yak, sr. specialist from the Laboratory of Natural Geophysical Fields, SB RAS.
“Prior to patent application, a working prototype of the device was built and field tested during geothermal investigations of the Lake Baikal waters. The trial results have confirmed the claimed characteristics of the device,” the description of the patent says.
The authors of the invention note that nowadays there is plenty of tasks where measurements to a precision of thousandths of a degree are required. Apart from the study of microcirculation in the bottom-layer water of Lake Baikal, such tasks are also related global climate change monitoring where relative temperature variations are of particular focus.
“Such accuracy is needed for solving special research tasks that require long-term autonomous digital temperature recording in restricted access environments (drill holes, bottom of a water body, infrastructure and industrial objects and so on),” the description further specifies.
By themselves, the temperature monitoring systems represent a streamer (cable) with attached sensors. The device is activated at certain time intervals, with the sensors starting measuring the temperature and then transmitting the records one-by-one via an ADC (converting analog data into its digital equivalent) for storage.
This is done using a switchboard. Temperature measurements using currently available stations (deployed in the bottom sediments) have a lower accuracy due to the influence of the connecting wires on the resistance temperature measurements.
This problem solution involved soma modifications in the system design: scientists removed the switchboard and replaced the connection system of resistance-temperature detectors. It was done so that each autonomous temperature recorder may have its own converter for data transmission.
– Owing to this, relative temperature variations are recorded to a precision of up to 0.001°C,” the patent developers explain.