The EGIM, a generic instrumental module to equip EMSO observatories

The EGIM, EMSO Generic Instrumental Module, developed within the frame of the European project “EmsoDev”, is designed to consistently and continuously measure parameters of interest for the science areas covered by the European Research Infrastructure Consortium EMSO, “European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory”. The EGIM aims to set up a number of ocean locations where the same set of core variables, including temperature, conductivity, pressure, dissolved O2, turbidity, ocean currents, and passive acoustics, are measured homogeneously: using identical hardware, the same sensor references, the same qualification methods, the same calibration methods, the same data format and access, and the same maintenance procedures. The EGIM provides all the services required to ensure the best measurement quality and long-term reliability in line with the Best Practices Handbook by FIXO3 and ESONET-EMSO Label, these services being sensor power distribution, time stamping, data storage and backup, protection against the environment and against fouling and bi-directional communication services… The EGIM is flexible and matches all EMSO site and discipline specific requirements. Operating modes, power requirements, mechanical design, embedded software enable the EGIM to adapt to the various EMSO node configurations: mooring line, sea bed station, cabled or non-cabled and surface buoy. Its compact and its modularity covers an array of deployment scenarios including being able to accommodate new instruments. This will be a key point to the modularity, inter-operability and capacity of the future evolution of the system. Having the EGIM as the sole reference for all nodes is a crucial step towards standardization, increasing global reliability and reducing costs across EMSO.