Development of SPEEK-Coated IrOx Sensor for High-Biomass Aquatic pH Monitoring.

Instability is a key challenge for current pH sensors in practical applications, especially in aquatic environments with high biomass and redox substances. Herein, we present a novel approach that uses a highly stable IrOx sensing layer enveloped in a composite film of SPEEK doped with a silicon-stabilized ionic liquid (SP-IrOx). This design mitigates drift due to sensitive layer variations and minimizes interference from complex external conditions. After exhibiting robustness under moderately reducing conditions caused by S2-, I-, and ascorbic acid, the SP-IrOx sensor's efficacy was validated through real-time pH measurements in demanding aquatic settings. These included laboratory algal culture medium, sediment substrates, and mussel aquaculture areas. The sensor sustained accuracy and stability over extended periods of 6-8 days when compared to calibrated commercial electrodes. The deviations from reference samples were minimal, with a variance of no more than 0.03 pH units in mussel aquaculture areas (n = 17) and 0.07 pH units in an algal culture medium (n = 37). As a potentiometric, this solid-state electrode features a compact structure and low energy consumption, making it an economical and low-maintenance solution for precise pH monitoring in diverse challenging environments with high biomass and turbidity.

Monitoring ocean currents during the passage of Typhoon Muifa using optical-fiber distributed acoustic sensing.

In situ observations under typhoon conditions are sparse and limited. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is an emerging technology that uses submarine optical-fiber (OF) cables to monitor the sea state. Here, we present DAS-based ocean current observations when a super typhoon passed overhead. The microseismic noise induced by ocean surface gravity waves (OSGWs) during Typhoon Muifa (2022) is observed in the ~0.08-0.38 Hz frequency band, with high-frequency (>0.3 Hz) component being tidally modulated. The OSGW propagation along the entire cable is successfully revealed via frequency-wavenumber analysis. Further, a method based on the current-induced Doppler shifts of DAS-recorded OSGW dispersions is proposed to calculate both speeds and directions of horizontal ocean currents. The measured current is consistent with the tidally induced sea-level fluctuations and sea-surface winds observed at a nearby ocean buoy. These observations demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring the ocean current under typhoon conditions using DAS-instrumented cables.

Adaptive equalization based on dynamic compressive sensing for single-carrier multiple-input multiple-output underwater acoustic communications.

The sparse property of a direct adaptive equalizer (DAE) for single-carrier underwater acoustic communications is well recognized. It has been used to improve the performance and/or reduce the complexity of a DAE. Extensive investigations have been performed in terms of performance improvement. On the contrary, research on complexity reduction remains preliminary. A fundamental way for reducing the complexity of a DAE is to keep only significant taps while discarding trivial taps, that is, to run a partial-tap DAE. Existing partial-tap DAE designs assume a slowly varying sparse structure and may suffer performance degradation under a severe underwater environment. Motivated by this fact, the dynamic compressed sensing (DCS) technique is resorted to and a partial-tap DAE based on the sparse adaptive orthogonal matching pursuit-affine projection algorithm is proposed. The sparse adaptive orthogonal matching pursuit-affine projection algorithm-direct adaptive equalizer (SpAdOMP-APA-DAE) achieves symbol-wise updating of both positions and values of the significant coefficients. In this paper, a more extensive study on DCS-based DAEs is performed, and an enhanced dynamic compressed sensing-direct adaptive equalizer design enabled by the sparse adaptive subspace pursuit-improved proportionate affine projection algorithm (SpAdOMP-IPAPA) is proposed. The sparse adaptive subspace pursuit-improved proportionate affine projection algorithm-direct adaptive equalizer enjoys lower complexity while better performance than the previous SpAdOMP-APA-DAE. Experimental results corroborated the superiority of the SpAdOMP-IPAPA-DAE.

The Limits of Effective Degrees of Freedom in UCA based Orbital Angular Momentum Multiplexed Communications.

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing technique has recently emerged and generated widespread interests since the OAM was discovered as a property of electromagnetic wave and acoustic wave. It was widely acknowledged that OAM multiplexing can achieve very high effective degrees of freedom (EDOF) and improve the spectral efficiency in optical, radio and acoustic communications. However, in the field of free-space optical (FSO) communications, it was demonstrated that OAM multiplexing is not the optimal multiplexing technique and the spatial bandwidth product (SBP) limits the EDOF. Is there any EDOF limits of OAM multiplexing in radio and acoustic communications? Could OAM multiplexing be safely scaled to far field? Here, we discover that the azimuthal resolution of OAM mode generator in OAM multiplexing limits its EDOF. Furthermore, we also verify that the OAM multiplexing in radio and acoustic communication fails to enable a long distance transmission and high EDOF simultaneously incurred by the inherently imperfect OAM mode generator.

10-m 9.51-Gb/s RGB laser diodes-based WDM underwater wireless optical communication.

The availability of the underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) based on red (R), green (G) and blue (B) lights makes the realization of the RGB wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) UWOC system possible. By properly mixing RGB lights to form white light, the WDM UWOC system has prominent potentiality for simultaneous underwater illumination and high-speed communication. In this work, for the first time, we experimentally demonstrate a 9.51-Gb/s WDM UWOC system using a red-emitting laser diode (LD), a single-mode pigtailed green-emitting LD and a multi-mode pigtailed blue-emitting LD. By employing 32-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation in the demonstration, the red-light, the green-light and the blue-light LDs successfully transmit signals with the data rates of 4.17 Gb/s, 4.17 Gb/s and 1.17 Gb/s, respectively, over a 10-m underwater channel. The corresponding bit error rates (BERs) are 2.2 × 10-3, 2.0 × 10-3 and 2.3 × 10-3, respectively, which are below the forward error correction (FEC) threshold of 3.8 × 10-3.