A four-probe salinity sensor optimized for long-term autonomous marine deployments

Salinity measurement in water is typically performed with conductivity sensors. However, for long-term marine deployments, loss of precision is observed, mainly due to electrode drift (oxidation and degradation occurs in the presence of water, salts and bio-fouling), which results in inaccuracy of measurements. A cost-effective, low-power, four-probe salinity sensor is presented, to accurately measure long-term deployments in oceans, rivers and lakes. The four-probe methodology overcomes many of the drift problems, and the use of low-cost stainless-steel electrodes (avoiding platinum or titanium materials) can still achieve good long-term stability, in the practical salinity scale range from 2 to 42 PSU. Low-power electronics (200 μA in sleep-mode and 1 mA in active-mode) based on a ratiometric ADC conversion, and a low-power microcontroller with non-volatile memory, complements the proposed sensor, to achieve an autonomous salinity sensor for long-term marine deployments, with autonomy above 1 year with a 1 min
^-1
sample rate, using a common 2400 mA × 3.7 V lithium battery.