An Autonomous Glider Network for the Monterey Bay Predictive Skill Experiment / AOSN-II

Abstract : Our long-term goal is to develop an efficient, relocatable, infrastructure-free ocean observing system composed of high-endurance, low-cost gliding vehicles with near-global range and modular sensor payload. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of adaptive sampling strategies and the automated control of large glider fleets operating within the framework of an autonomous oceanographic sampling network. The work proposed is one component of a coordinated effort to demonstrate and quantify gains in predictive skill resulting from model-guided adaptive sampling using a network of autonomous vehicles. During the field experiment the WHOI glider fleet will provide distributed measurements of temperature and salinity, vertically-averaged velocity, and on several vehicles, optical properties including bioluminescence.