# US 10,120,103 B2 · Intelligent/autonomous thermocline mapping and monitoring for marine and freshwater applications > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,120,103 B2 - Document ID: US10120103B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 14/984,882 - Filed: 2015-12-30 - Published: 2017-07-06 - Granted: 2018-11-06 - Earliest claimed: 2015-12-30 - Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation - Applicants: International Business Machines Corporation - Inventors: Eli M. Dow; Michael Kelly; Harry R. Kolar; Michael L. Passow - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10120103B2 ## CPC - G01V 9/005: {by thermal methods, e.g. after generation of heat by chemical reactions} - G01K 13/00: Thermometers specially adapted for specific purposes - G01N 33/18: Water - G01V: GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS (means for indicating the location of accidentally buried, e.g. snow-buried, persons A63B29/02) - G01K: MEASURING TEMPERATURE; MEASURING QUANTITY OF HEAT; THERMALLY-SENSITIVE ELEMENTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR (radiation pyrometry G01J5/00) - G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q) ## Abstract A system for mapping a thermocline in a body of fluid includes a thermocline detection and monitoring module, a persistent data storage module; and a plurality of distributed sensors, including intelligent sensors, connected with the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module and the persistent data storage module by one or more control-level programming and communication methods. The thennocline detection and monitoring module can monitor the thermocline at sampling intervals to collect and fuse measurement data from the plurality of sensors to capture thermocline changes as events, correlate measurement data and events, store measurement data in the persistent data storage module along with previously acquired measurement data for comparison and tracking, characterize the thermocline as a function of spatial location, depth, and time, create and maintain reports that describe the thermocline characteristics, status, trends, and provide multimodal notifications of events to different users. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system for mapping a thermocline in a body of fluid, comprising: at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module (TDMM); a persistent data storage module; and a plurality of distributed sensors, including intelligent sensors, connected with the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module and the persistent data storage module by one or more control-level programming and communication methods, wherein the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module monitors the thermocline by collecting measurement data from the plurality of sensors at sampling intervals, fuses measurement data to capture thermocline changes as events, correlates measurement data and events, stores measurement data in the persistent data storage module along with previously acquired measurement data for comparison and tracking, characterizes the thermocline as a function of spatial location, depth, and time, creates and maintains reports that describe the thermocline characteristics, status, trends, and provides multimodal notifications of events to different users. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein sampling intervals for monitoring the thermocline are autonomously adjusted based on knowledge-based and/or feedback approaches related to changes in thermocline characteristics observed from measurement data, triggered by actual or environmental factors/events or by predictive models or external data. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module provides trend and predictive analyses of thermocline changes, to monitor predictive models to measure natural physical drivers to thermocline changes, perform dynamic filtering to compensate for environmental parameter changes, and to use machine learning techniques to continuously improve measurement processes. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein measurement data includes weather conditions, current information, chemical data, and acoustic data. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors includes conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, acoustic Doppler current profilers, pinger/depth sounders, sonobuoys, syndicated sources, and multiple heterogeneous data feeds that are supported in real time or asynchronously. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more communications methods include wired, optical fiber, and wireless methods. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of sensors incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to determine location. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising an initialization module that initializes parameters, including sensor parameters, geospatial information, physical characteristics, and data feed characteristics. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a preprocessing module that examines the measurement data streams for quality to identify data gaps and range inconsistencies. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a communications module that handles all TDMM communications. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor interface and control module that provides embedded functionality that controls the plurality of sensors. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a power management module that provides a constrained power envelope to optimize measurements, analytics, controls, and communications. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising an event handling/alarm services module that sends alerts, classifies events, sets alarm options and priorities, and tags sensor datasets for uncertain data quality. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising an asset management and maintenance management module that provides interfaces to manage a physical platform that hosts the TDMM. ### Claim 15 A system for mapping a thermocline in a body of fluid, comprising: at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module (TDMM) that monitors the thermocline by collecting measurement date from the plurality of sensors at sampling intervals, fuses measurement data to capture thermocline changes as events, correlates measurement data and events, stores measurement data in the persistent data storage module along with previously acquired measurement data for comparison and tracking, characterizes the thermocline as a function of spatial location, depth, and time, creates and maintains reports that describe the thermocline characteristics, status, trends, provides multimodal notifications of events to different users, provides trend and predictive analyses of thermocline changes to monitor predictive models to measure natural physical drivers to thermocline changes, perform dynamic filtering to compensate for environmental parameter changes, and to use machine learning techniques to continuously improve measurement processes. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The system of claim 15, wherein sampling intervals for monitoring the thermocline are autonomously adjusted based on knowledge-based and/or feedback approaches related to changes in thermocline characteristics observed from measurement data, triggered by actual or environmental factors/events or by predictive models or external data. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The system of claim 15, wherein measurement data includes weather conditions, current information, chemical data, and acoustic data. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The system of claim 15, further comprising: a persistent data storage module, wherein the plurality of distributed sensors include intelligent sensors and are connected with the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module and the persistent data storage module by one or more control-level programming and communication methods, wherein the plurality of sensors includes conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, acoustic Doppler current profilers, pinger/depth sounders, sonobuoys, syndicated sources, and multiple heterogeneous data feeds that are supported in real time or asynchronously. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more communications methods include wired, optical fiber, and wireless methods. ### Claim 20 (depends on 18) The system of claim 18, wherein at least some of the plurality of sensors incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to determine location.