A compact buoy system for ship-use in the measurement of ocean micro-structures over a monthly period

Abstract

The oceanographic buoy described is for ship use. It allows a single ship to make synoptic studies of a limited body of water using a number of buoys. The purpose was to create an economic, simple, dependable sea unit, which allows for accidental losses, matched to a more sophisticated data processing system that represents a durable investment. The sea unit is of small size, light weight in air and water, and easy to launch and retrieve. The low drag of buoys and cable permits their use in areas of strong currents. The sensing capabilities of the first-generation system are temperature, current speed and direction, and depth. The data storage capacity is of 16,000 cycles or about 400,000 individual data. Recording is intermittent, with maximum sampling rate of 30 seconds. The system is engineered for one month operation, which is considered a reasonable cruising time for a ship in a limited area of the ocean.