Mediterranean Sea SOCIB/NOC collaboration: Glider cruise
From November 18 to 22, the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), a United Kingdom oceanographic facility developing innovative research and technology in marine science from coast to the deep ocean, has successfully carried out a cruise with underwater gliders off the Bay of Palma on board the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System research vessel (R/V SOCIB). In the course of 4 days, the Western Mediterranean Sea, Balearic Islands, has been monitored.
Researchers on board the R/V SOCIB during the glider deployment.
As part of the cruise, researchers have deployed five NOC gliders, one glider of the University of East Anglia and another one from SOCIB off the Bay of Palma, carrying out tests reaching depths up to 1,000m. These underwater autonomous vehicles are revolutionising oceanographic research today, since they make it possible to monitor the sea state in real time. Gliders are equipped with sensors to gain information about physicochemical parameters from the seawater, being capable of collecting data relating to conductivity, temperature, depth, chlorophyll and oxygen via their sensors over long periods.
In addition, researchers have also made a CTD section on the glider deployment point using the SeaBird SBE9 to measure Conductivity, Temperature, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, turbidity, and pressure (i.e. water Depth) along the water column. All data will be cross-validated with the glider data, in order to improve the reliability of all the platforms involved.
Check the SOCIB Deployments application (DApp https://apps.socib.es/dapp/), to access all available information related to glider trajectories.
About the National Oceanography Centre
The National Oceanography Centre or NOC is the world’s renowned oceanographic facility in the UK. Very recently, it became an independent charitable organization. NOC serves the international science community and has the largest marine autonomous facility both in the UK and Europe.
As in SOCIB, NOC works on multiple government-funded projects to raise awareness of the issues in the ocean and how to solve them. Additionally, in order to make a global impact through ocean research, they encourage public participation and contributions. Moreover, they make sure that publicly funded data is openly accessible to everyone.
