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AODN Data Manager
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Data Officer
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Data Officer
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Data Officer
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Pattiaratchi, Charitha, Professor
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Brief description The Australian National Facility for Ocean Gliders (ANFOG), deploys a fleet of gliders around Australia. The underwater ocean glider represents a technological revolution for oceanography. Autonomous ocean gliders can be built relatively cheaply, are controlled remotely and are reusable allowing them to make repeated subsurface ocean observations at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods. The data retrieved from the glider fleet will contribute to the study of the major boundary current systems surrounding Australia and their links to coastal ecosystems. The ANFOG glider fleet consists of two types; Slocum gliders and Seagliders. Slocum gliders (named for Joshua Slocum, the first solo global circumnavigator), manufactured by Webb Research Corp are optimised for shallow coastal waters (<200m) where high manoeuvrability is needed. ANFOG will have Slocum gliders for deployment on the continental shelf. Seagliders, built at the University of Washington, are designed to operate more efficiently in the open ocean up to 1000m water depth. ANFOG uses their Seagliders to monitor the boundary currents and continental shelves, which is valuable for gathering long-term environmental records of physical, chemical and biological data not widely measured to date. Whilst the Slocum gliders, due to their low cost and operational flexibility, will be of great use in intensive coastal monitoring, both types of gliders weigh only 52kg, enabling them to be launched from small boats. They have a suite of sensors able to record temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll against position and depth The use of these contemporary gliders provides a unique opportunity to effectively measure the boundary currents off Australia, which are the main link between open-ocean and coastal processes. A number of gliders are operated with target regions including the Coral Sea, East Australian Current off New South Wales and Tasmania, Southern Ocean southwest of Tasmania, the Leeuwin and Capes Currents off South Western Australia and the Pilbara and Kimberly regions off North Western Australia.
Notes
Credit
Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). It is operated by a consortium of institutions as an unincorporated joint venture, with the University of Tasmania as Lead Agent.
Notes
Credit
The University of Western Australia (UWA)
text: westlimit=110.00; southlimit=-47.00; eastlimit=157.00; northlimit=-9.00
ANFOG data management document (ANFOG_data_management2_3.doc)
(ANFOG page on IMOS website)
uri :
http://imos.org.au/oceangliders.html
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