PLOCAN, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) continue to promote and strengthen their collaboration in the ocean-observing strategy in the Canary Islands through the seasonal program based on glider missions at the Time-Series station ESTOC (deep node of the PLOCAN Integrated Observatory) and Deep Radial of the Canary Islands: Study and observation of the climate variability of the subtropical gyre in the Eastern Central Atlantic (Radial RAPROCAN), managed by PLOCAN and the IEO respectively, on which researchers from the IOCAG (Institute of Oceanography and Global Change) belonging to the ULPGC collaborate at a scientific-technical level.
Proof of this is the start of the successful completion of a new mission corresponding to annul program 2026 under the distinctive ESTOC 2026_1, that with a duration of three weeks and a journey of approximately two hundred nautical miles, performing dives every three hours down to 1000 meters depth with an underwater glider unit belonging to the fleet of autonomous marine vehicles VIMAS of PLOCAN, responsible for providing the corresponding technical and operational support to the aforementioned research groups through the corresponding access requests to the ICTS.
The main objective of this seasonal glider program is to contribute to the long-term sustainability of ESTOC and RAPROCAN time-series programs, through systematic routine ocean observations with autonomous technologies, much more efficient and sustainable than traditional methodologies like research ships. This type of mission enables to collect nearly more than a million data on each of the six biogeochemical seawater parameters observed (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity and underwater noise), all in line with current programs, projects, standards and international methodologies concerning ocean environment observations, promoted by OceanGliders, EuroGOOS, GROOM-RI, JERICO-RI and EMSO-RI.
PLOCAN is a gliderport infrastructure member of leading European initiatives and working groups, which contributes with this type of initiatives and activities both to the implementation of protocols and international standards for the operation of autonomous ocean-observing platforms, as well as the dissemination of the gathered data. An example of this is the contribution to the European strategy for the management and standardization of marine data through direct cooperation with the Coriolis and EMODNet initiatives, which enables real-time data from each dive, with quality control and standardized European format.
More information at PLOCAN Glider Portal.
