Down in the ocean's depths, nearly every creature turns into a living glowstick, by converting chemical energy into light. So many things -- even the energy of passing ships and subs -- can cause single-celled organisms to light up. The Navy would like to turn that bioluminescence into a military tool. The service is looking to"develop a navigation aid for underwater vehicles that will sense [any] bioluminescence triggered" and report whether an adversary might be able to see the light -- and detect the vehicle, as a result.
According to a Navy request for research proposals, "covert, underwater navigation in coastal and estuarine waters is often compromised by bioluminescence from marine phyto- and zooplankton, triggered by turbulence generated by the underwater vehicle. If the vehicle it close enough to the surface and if the bioluminescence is bright enough, the stimulated light can be observed above water."
The Navy wants this "Tactical Bioluminescence Navigation Aid" project to:
The system should be as compact and conceptually simple as possible. For example, simple radiometers, strategically placed on the platform, could simultaneously measure the ambient light field and platform-induced bioluminescence directly. The radiative transfer model should be analytically simple and capable of residing on a specialized chip within the circuitry. The display should be graphical and easily understood at a glance.
[Photo: Steven Haddock, UCSB]
