Environmental data collection using autonomous Wave Gliders

Abstract

The Sensor Hosting Autonomous Remote Craft (SHARC), also known as Wave Glider, is an autonomous ocean vehicle powered by wave motion. This slow-moving platform makes long-term deployments and environmental data collection feasible, especially in data sparse regions or hazardous environments. The standard SHARC hosts a meteorological station (Airmar PB200) that samples air pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind direction at 1.12 m. The SHARC automatically transmits a 10-minute averaged data suite through an Iridium satellite link. In an effort to evaluate the SHARC default Airmar sensors and seek optimal sensors for air-sea interaction studies,NPS has developed an independent package of meteorological sensors, theNPS Met, for use on the SHARC.NPS Met measures pressure, air temperature, wind, SST, and relative humidity. This SHARC payload package was deployed three times in the Monterey Bay, along with a collocated drifting buoy (Marine Air-Sea Flux buoy, or MASFlux) with proven flux, mean, wave, and SST measurement for comparison and validation. This thesis will present analyses of data from the new mast and Airmar as compared to known, quality measurements fromNPS MASFlux and NDBC buoy. Surface fluxes, evaporation duct heights and strength are derived from the SHARC measurements using the COARE algorithm.