THE SLOCUM GLIDER
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Coupled
Boundary Layers Air-Sea Transfer (CBLAST) participants recently deployed
a network of autonomous gliding vehicles in the Atlantic Ocean south
of Martha's Vineyard. This small fleet of Slocum gliders characterized
the three-dimensional, time-dependent structure of the shelfbreak front
in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, while simultaneously measuring physical and
optical properties across the width of the continental shelf. The experiment
is part of an ongoing effort to develop a flexible, cost-effective system
of high-endurance autonomous vehicles for oceanographic research and
exploration. This research will complement advances made during the
recent Office of Naval Research (ONR) Coastal Mixing and Optics and
Shelfbreak Primer experiments to provide new insight into temporal and
spatial variability at the interface between coastal and blue-water
environments. The three Slocum gliders in this experiment will be equipped
with conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) and optical sensors. During
the next year we will integrate a new phased-array Doppler velocity
log/current profiler to enable bottom-referenced Slocum navigation and
absolute water velocity measurement. Two more Slocum gliders have been
proposed to provide complementary measurement capabilities in the ONR-CBLAST
experiment. For more information about the Slocum glider and ongoing
field efforts contact Dave Fratantoni.
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