Wave Glider recovered after successful mission

Nov 11, 2019

With an average of 1.6 knots the MARUM Wave Glider moves through the water. Photo: MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen; S. Meckel.

The MARUM Wave Glider was picked up and brought ashore by researchers from MARUM and the Spanish research institute PLOCAN after a three-week trip north of the Canary Islands. Wave gliders are wave-driven surface vehicles that resemble a surfboard. The measuring platforms can move independently through the water for weeks and months, recording data on salinity, temperature, turbidity, chlorophyll, air pressure and current.

The completed dive took place at the ESTOC station, a measuring station where meteorological and oceanographic parameters are monitored. The buoy is part of the Offshore Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) and anchored about 50 kilometers north of Tenerife.

Since 23 October, the MARUM Wave Glider has been sailing a fixed course to record biochemical environmental parameters. The data collected will help verify the newly developed Ocean Data Acquisition and Processing System (OpenDAM). The development of OpenDAM is a cooperative project between PLOCAN, the University of Barcelona (UPC) and MARUM. In addition, the data from the air pressure sensor, which was carried, were transmitted to the German Weather Service in real time.

In the coming weeks, both the scientific and the vehicle data will be analysed. The latter will be used to develop an improved operational concept for future missions.

More information:

The MARUM Wave Glider

Article on the website of PLOCAN

The Wave Glider in front of the harbor in Taliarte, Las Palmas, Spain. Photo: MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen

The route of the Wave Glider during the last three weeks. Photo: MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen, S. Meckel.