Barents Sea Monitoring with a SEA EXPLORER Glider
Résumé
The use of gliders in the Polar Regions offers clever and inexpensive methods for large scale monitoring and exploration. In August and September of 2014, a SEA EXPLORER glider successfully completed a 388 km mission in the central Barents Sea to monitor the physical and biological features over a transect between 72° 30' N and 74° 30' N latitude and between 32° E and 33° E longitude, as part of the European FP7 ACCESS project and in cooperation with the Institute of Marine Research, Norway. The paper discusses the performance of the SEA EXPLORER vehicle during the mission in Arctic waters. The behavior of the magnetic compass in close proximity to the magnetic north pole is described and its resulting impact on the flight of the glider. The reliability and robustness of the vehicle is evaluated for operations in these difficult conditions. This successful and cost-effective mission now opens the door to future opportunities to conduct repeat autonomous monitoring in the Barents Sea.
Mots clés
arctic water
central Barents
distance 388 km
magnetic compass
magnetic north pole
polar region
sea monitoring
Arctic
Calibration
Compass
Magnetic fields
Magnetoacoustic effects
Monitoring
Oceans
European FP7 ACCESS project
underwater vehicles
reliability
oceanographic techniques
compasses
Institute of Marine Research
Norway
SEA EXPLORER vehicle glider
Domaines
Sciences de l'environnement| Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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