The glider mission between Gran Canaria and Madeira Archipelagos comes to a happy end

In: Press Release

This mission is part of the iFADO project.

An autonomous surface vehicle (waveglider) equipped with an array of meteo and oceanographic sensors have just completed a mission between Gran Canaria and Madeira Islands. The glider, belonging to the Canary Island Oceanic Platform (PLOCAN), was released on the 16th of October and recovered on 23th of November 2018. The vehicle position, full track followed and scientific data collected was accessed in near real time in the link http://obsplatforms.plocan.eu/vehicle/USV/32/. During those 35 days, the surface glider has travelled 1539 km collecting meteorological and oceanographic variables, including noise level in the ocean by using a system of passive-acoustic monitoring hydrophones along with acoustic traces of cetaceans of interest in the area of operation.

The mission is on the scope of iFADO project, which will combine traditional surveillance with profitable, cutting-edge technologies: remote sensing, numeric modelling and emerging autonomous observation platforms, such as gliders and oceanic buoys, to demonstrate the application of innovative products for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).