Ocean Science www.ocean-sci.net 1812-0784 1812-0792 6 2 2010 10.5194/os-6-549-2010 http://www.ocean-sci.net/6/549/2010/ http://www.ocean-sci.net/6/549/2010/os-6-549-2010.html http://www.ocean-sci.net/6/549/2010/os-6-549-2010.pdf 549 562 2010-06-07 Automated gas bubble imaging at sea floor – a new method of in situ gas flux quantification K. Thomanek O. Zielinski ozielinski@hs-bremerhaven.de H. Sahling G. Bohrmann University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, An der Karlstadt 8, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Klagenfurter Str., 28359 Bremen, Germany IMARE Institute for Marine Resources, Bussestr. 27, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany Photo-optical systems are common in marine sciences and have been extensively used in coastal and deep-sea research. However, due to technical limitations in the past photo images had to be processed manually or semi-automatically. Recent advances in technology have rapidly improved image recording, storage and processing capabilities which are used in a new concept of automated in situ gas quantification by photo-optical detection. The design for an in situ high-speed image acquisition and automated data processing system is reported ("Bubblemeter"). New strategies have been followed with regards to back-light illumination, bubble extraction, automated image processing and data management. This paper presents the design of the novel method, its validation procedures and calibration experiments. The system will be positioned and recovered from the sea floor using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). It is able to measure bubble flux rates up to 10 L/min with a maximum error of 33% for worst case conditions. The Bubblemeter has been successfully deployed at a water depth of 1023 m at the Makran accretionary prism offshore Pakistan during a research expedition with R/V Meteor in November 2007. Agrawal, Y. C. and Pottsmith, H. C.: Autonomous Long-Term in situ Particle Sizing Using A New Laser Diffraction Instrument, OCEANS, 5, 1575–1580, 1989. Belcher, E. O.: Quantification of Bubbles Formed in Animals and Man During Decompression, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 27, 330–338, 1980. Brauer, H.: Grundlagen der Einphasen- und Mehrphasenströmungen, Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau und Frankfurt am Main, 1971. Brauer, H.: Turbulenzen in mehrphasigen Strömungen, Chem.-Ing.-Tech., 51, 934–948, 1979. Boetius, A., Ravenschlag, K., Schubert, C. J., Rickert, D., Widdel, F., Gieseke, A., Amann, R., Jørgensen, B. B., Witte, U., and Pfannkuche, O.: A marine microbial consortium apparently mediating anaerobic oxidation of methane, Nature, 407, 623–626, 2000. Canny, J.: A Computational Approach to Edge Detection. IEEE Trans., Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22, 679–698, 1986. Deane, G. D. and Stokes, M. D.: Scale dependence of bubble creation mechanisms in breaking waves, Nature, 418, 839–844, 2002. Deckwer, W.-D.: Reaktionstechnik in Blasensäulen, Otto Salle Verlag, Frankfurt am Main und Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau, 1985. de Vries, A. W. G., Biesheuvel, A., and van Wijngaarden, L.: Notes on the path and wake of a gas bubble rising in pure water, Int. J. of Multiphase Flow, 28, 1823–1835, 2002. Eisma, D., Schuhmacher, T., Boekel, H., van Heerwaarden, J., Franken, H., Laan, M., Vaars, A., Eijgenraam, F., and Kalf, J.: A camera and image-analysis system for in situ observation of flocs in natural waters, Neth. J. Sea Res., 27, 43–56, 1990. Greinert, J. and Nützel, B.: Hydroacoustic experiments to establish a method for the determination of methane bubble fluxes at cold seeps, Geo. Mar. Lett., 24, 75–85, 2004. Haberman, W. L. and Morton, R. K.: An experimental investigation of the drag and shape of air bubbles rising in various liquids, Report 802, Navy Dept., David W. Taylor Model Basin, 68 Washington DC, 1953. Hornafius, J S., Quigley, D., and Luyendyk, B. P.: The world's most spectacular marine hydrocarbon seeps (Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara Channel, California): Quantification of emissions, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 20703–20711, 1999. Judd, A. G.: Natural seabed gas seeps as sources of atmospheric methane, Environ. Geol., 46, 988–996, 2004. Karpen, V., Thomsen, L., and Suess, E.: A new ,schlieren' technique application for fluid flow visualization at cold seep sites, Mar. Geol., 204, 145–159, 2004. Lamarre, E. and Melville, W. K.: Instrumentation for the measurement of void-fraction in breakingwaves: Laboratory and field results, IEEE J. Oceanic Eng., 17, 204–215, 1992. Leighton, T. G., Ramble, D. G., Phelps, A .D., Morfey, C. L., and Harris, P. P.: Acoustic detection of gas bubbles in a pipe, Acta Acustica, 84, 801–814, 1998. Leifer, I. and Patro, R. K.: The bubble mechanism for methane transport from the shallow sea bed to the surface: A review and sensitivity study, Cont. Shelf Res., 22, 2409–2428, 2002. Leifer, I., De Leeuw, G., Cohen, L. H., and Kunz, G.: Calibrating optical bubble size by the displaced mass method, Chem. Eng. Sci., 58, 5211–5216, 2003. Leifer, I. and MacDonald, I.: Dynamics of the gas flux from shallow gas hydrate deposits: interaction between oily hydrate bubbles and the oceanic environment, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 210, 411–424, 2003. Leifer, I. and Boles, J.: Measurement of marine hydrocarbon seep flow through fractured rock and unconsolidated sediment, Mar. Pet. Geol., 22, 551–568, 2005. MacKay, R. S. and Rubisson, J. R.: Decompression studies using ultrasonic imaging of bubbles, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., 25, 537–544, 1978. McGinnis, D. F., Greinert, J., Artemov, Y., Beaubien, S. E., Wüest, A.: Fate of rising methane bubbles in stratified waters: How much methane reaches the atmosphere?, J. Geophys. Res., 111, CO9007, doi:10.1029/2005JC003183, 2006. Michelson, D. L., Longe, J. W., Smith, T. A., and Suggs, J. A.: A micro bubble dispersion inwater – what role in industrialwaste treatment? Proceeding of Mid-Atlantic Industrial WasteWater and Hazardous Materials Conference, 13–30, 1988. Miyahara, T. and Yamanaka, S.: Mechanics of motion and deformation of a single bubble rising through quiescent highly viscous Newtonian and non-Newtonian media, J. of Chem. Eng. Japan, Tokyo 26(3), 297–302, 1993. Nikolovska, A. and Waldmann, C.: Passive acoustic quantification of underwater gas seepage, OCEANS 2006, 1, 1–6, doi:10.1109/OCEANS.2006.306926, 2006. Nikolovska, A., Manasseh, R., and Ooi, A.: On the propagation of acoustic energy in the vicinity of a bubble chain, J. Sound Vib., 306, 507–523, 2007. Nikolovska, A., Sahling, H., and Bohrmann, G.: Hydroacoustic methodology for detection, localization, and quantification of gas bubbles rising from the seafloor at gas seeps from the eastern Black Sea, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 9, Q10010, doi:10.1029/2008GC002118, 2008. Orphan, V. J., House, C. H., Hinrichs, K.-U., McKeegan, K. D., and DeLong, E. F.: Methane-consuming archaea revealed by directly coupled isotopic and phylogenetic analysis, Science, 293, 484–487, 2001. Reible, D. D.: Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering, CRC Press, 1999. Sahling, H., Bohrmann, G., Artemov, Y., Bahr, A., Brüning, M., Klaucke, I., Kozlova, E., Nikolovska, A., Pape, T., and Wallmann, K.: Vodyanitskii Mud volcano, Sorrokin Trough, Black Sea: Geological characterization and quantification of gas bubble streams, Mar. Petrol. Geol., 26(9), 1799–1811, doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2009.01.010, 2009. Sauter, E. J., Muyakshin, S. I., Charlou, J. L., Schluter, M., Boetius, A., Jerosch, K., Damm, E., Foucher, J.-P., and Klages, M.: Methane discharge from a deep-sea submarine mud volcano into the upper water column by gas hydrate-coated methane bubbles, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett. 243, 354-365, 2006. Schlüter, M.: Blasenbewegung in praxisrelevanten Zweiphasenströmungen, Fortschr.-Ber. VDI Reihe 7 Nr 432, Düsseldorf, VDI Verlag, 2002. Serizawa, A., Kataoka, I., and Michiyoshi, I.: Turbulence structure of air-water bubbly flow, Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 13, 221–259, 1975. Suess, E., Torres, M. E., Bohrmann, G., Collier, R. W., Rickert, D., Goldfinger, C., Linke, P., Heuser, A., Sahling, H., Heeschen, K., Jung, C., Nakamura, K., Greinert, J., Pfannkuche, O., A. Tréhu, A., Klinkhammer, G., Whiticar, M.J., Eisenhauer, A., Teichert, B., and Elvert, M.: Sea floor methane hydrates at Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia Margin, edited by: Paull, C., Natural gas hydrates: Occurrence, distribution, and detection, Geophysical Monograph 124, American Geophysical Union, 2001. Stokes, M. D., and Deane, G. B.: A new optical instrument for the study of bubbles at high void fractions within breaking waves, IEEE J. of Oceanic Eng., 24, 300–311, 1999. Taboada, B., Vega-Alvarado, L., Cordova-Aguilar, M. S., Galindo, E., and Corkidi, G.: Semi-automatic image analysis methodology for the segmentation of bubbles and drops in complex dispersions occurring in bioreactors, Exp. Fluid, 41, 383–392, 2006. Torres, M. E., McManus, J., Hammond, D., de Angelis, M. A., Heeschen, K., Colbert, S., Tryon, M. D., Brown, K. M., and Suess, E.: Fluid and chemical fluxes in and out of sediments hosting methane hydrate deposits on Hydrate Ridge, OR, I: Hydrological provinces, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 201, 525–540, 2002. Whalley, P. B., and Davidson, J. F.: Proc. Symp on Multiphase Flow Systems, Inst. Chem. Eng. Symp., Series No38, J5, London, 1977. Zielinski, O., Saworski, B., and Schulz, J.: Marine bubble detection using optical-flow techniques, J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid, 5, 1–5, doi:10.2971/jeos.2010.10016s, 2010.