Proceedings Article | 29 April 2009
Proc. SPIE. 7317, Ocean Sensing and Monitoring
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Observatories, Backscatter, Luminescence, Acoustics, Oceanography, Lithium, Control systems, Radar, Temperature metrology
Buoyancy driven Slocum gliders were a vision of Douglas Webb, which Henry Stommel championed
in a vision published in 1989. Slocum gliders have transitioned from a concept to a technology serving research
and environmental stewardship. The long duration and low costs of gliders allow them to anchor spatial time
series. Large distances, over 600 km, can be covered using a set of alkaline batteries. Lithium batteries can
anchor missions that are thousands of kilometers in length. Since the initial tests, a wide range of physical and
optical sensors have been integrated into the glider allowing measurements of temperature, salinity, depth
averaged currents, surface currents, fluorescence, apparent/inherent optical properties active and passive
acoustics. A command/control center, entitled Dockserver, has been developed that allows users to fly fleets of
gliders simultaneously in multiple places around the world via the Internet. Since October 2003, Rutgers gliders
have conducted 157 missions, traversed >55,000 kilometers, logged >2600 days at sea, and logged ~350,000
vertical profiles. The capabilities of the glider make them an indispensable tool for the growing global effort to
build integrated ocean observatories. For example, gliders are now a central tool within the National Science
Foundation Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). Gliders provide a new magnet in which to attract young people
into the ocean science and engineering. For example Rutgers undergraduates now anchor long duration flights
of gliders world-wide beginning their freshmen year. This is critical to training the next generation.
