ships

Ships are indispensible for oceanographic research. For many observational tasks there is simply no substitute for well-trained humans working aboard a well-equipped research vessel. Ships such as the R/V Knorr (left) provide scientists and engineers with essential access to the world's oceans. Smaller vessels are very useful in coastal areas and shallow water.

underwater gliders

We operate a fleet of nearly 20 autonomous underwater gliders. The fleet includes several Webb Research Slocum gliders (200 m, 1000 m, thermal) as well as four Bluefin Robotics Spray gliders. Gliders have great endurance but are very slow. To achieve a useful sampling density we often deploy as many as 10 gliders simultaneously to sample physical and biological parameters in the water column.

ecomapper auv

We are currently building two of these short-range, high-speed underwater vehicles. We expect to use them for studying physics and biology in coral reef ecosystems and for developing multi-vehicle collaborative behaviors.

floats and drifters

We use drifting instruments to explore circulation patterns over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Recent experiments have made use of acoustically-tracked subsurface floats and satellite-tracked surface drifters.

salp

The Submerged Autonomous Launch Platform (SALP) is deployed at depths as great as 2000m and for up to three years on a standard oceanographic mooring. SALP allows floats and drifters to be launched automatically according to a user-defined schedule, interactively by real-time acoustic remote control, or adaptively on the basis of measured environmental conditions.

axis

The Autonomous Expendable Instrument System (AXIS) is an advanced autolauncher system for expendable probes (XBT, XCTD, XSV, ...) commonly used for rapid mesoscale surveys and basin-scale climate monitoring. We are currently seeking funding to advance AXIS from a laboratory prototype.

satellites

We use measurements retrieved from earth-orbiting satellites to study the patterns of ocean circulation and the evolution of oceanographic processes. Remote measurements of sea surface temperature, sea surface height, ocean color, wind, and (soon) sea surface salinity all contribute to our research.