Protocols for Verifying the Performance of In Situ Chlorophyll Fluorometers.

Abstract

Instrument performance verification is necessary to enable effective existing technologies to be recognized and so that promising new technologies can be made available to support coastal science, resource management and the long-term development of an Integrated Ocean Observing System. The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) has therefore been established to provide an unbiased, third party testbed for evaluating new and developing coastal sensors and sensor platforms for use in coastal environments. The following protocols describe how ACT will verify the environmental performance characteristics of commercial-ready, in situ fluorometers through the evaluation of objective and quality assured data. The goal of this evaluation program is to provide technology users with an independent and credible assessment of instrument performance in a variety of environments. Therefore, the data and information on performance characteristics will cover legitimate information that users need. ACT will not simply verify vendor claims, but instead looks to the broader community to define the data and operational parameters that are valuable in guiding instrument purchase and deployment decisions. It is important to note that ACT does not certify technologies or guarantee that a technology will always, or under circumstances other than those used in testing, operate at the levels verified. ACT does not seek to determine regulatory compliance; does not rank technologies or compare their performance; does not label or list technologies as acceptable or unacceptable; and does not seek to determine “best available technology” in any form. ACT will avoid all potential pathways to picking “winners and losers”. Therefore, although the following protocols will apply to all instruments evaluated, no direct comparisons will be made between instruments from different manufacturers and instrument-specific Verification Statements will be released to the public for each instrument type as a final report