OC4331-Mesoscale Oceanography
Final Project Summary

Sea Gliders

Operational Overview of Sea Gliders

Project Team Member(s)

LT Glen Cesari, USN

Major Findings

A review of the glider subset of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) measuring systems.  Specifically, both the hardware and decentralized net-centric command and control systems under development is detailed.  The Monterey Bay 2006 field experiment provides the most current example of how the technology of gliders are expanding the capabilities of both the scientific and military communities.  

The most important aspects of gliders include:

  • Low cost, extended temporal and spatial ranges and sustained/all weather in-situ sampling.
  • Ability to adaptively sample as mission or data set is updated.
  • Decentralized command and control architecture.

The primary objectives of the Monterey Bay 2006 field experiment are:

  • Adaptive sampling and prediction (ASAP) experiments are designed develop processes to maximize data collection.   
  • Assessing the effects of submesoscale ocean parameterizations (AESOP) looks at processes outside of current ocean circulation models such as internal waves.
  • Layered organization in the coastal ocean (LOCO) studies how layers of microscopic organisms form in the ocean.
  • Undersea persistent surveillance (UPS) utilizes the ocean circulation model the data collected by all the various instruments and hydrophones to detect and track the vehicles used in the study.  


Figure 1. Characteristics of the most common gliders

.

Platform

Max Range (km)

Deployment Duration

Depth (meters)

Glide Angle (Degrees)

Slocum Electric Glider

1,500

30 days

200/1,000

26

Slocum Thermal Glider

40,000

5 years

2,000

26

Spray Glider

4,700

50 days

1,500

19-25

Seaglider

6,000

6 months

1,000

8-70


Figure 2. The Spray Glider is a buoyancy driven glider with a design similar to the other common gliders.

References

1. Dhanak, Manhar R., and Ken Holappa. "An Autonomous Ocean Turbulence Measurement Platform." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 16.11 (1999): 1506.

 

2. Goodman, Glenn W.,Jr. "Breakthrough." Sea Power 49.5 (2006): 14.

 

3. Goodman, Louis, Edward R. Levine, and Rolf G. Lueck. "On Measuring the Terms of the Turbulent Kinetic Energy Budget from an AUV." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 23.7 (2006): 977.

 

4. Maier, Wolfgang. "Autonomous Underwater Vehicles." Naval Forces 21.5 (2000): 76.

 

5. Niiler, Eric. "Hi-Tech Kon-Tiki of Research Underwater Glider Tests Ocean Currents Via Remote Control." Christian Science Monitor Sep 16 1999: 14.

 

6. Stommel, H. "The Slocum Mission", Oceanography, April 1989, pp 22-25

 

 

Websites

1. http://www.mbari.org/mb2006/

2. http://spray.ucsd.edu/

3. http://www.webbresearch.com/

4. http://www.apl.washington.edu/projects/seaglider/summary.html

5. http://www.ausi.org/auvs/auvs.html (links to many AUV’s)

 

 

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