The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) consolidates its role as a strategic infrastructure for ocean monitoring in the north-eastern Atlantic. Through state-of-the-art autonomous technologies and intensive collaboration with universities, research centres and companies, PLOCAN has promoted the generation of essential data for science, maritime safety and sustainability during 2025, contributing to improving knowledge of the marine environment and strengthening regional ocean observation capacity.
The fleet of autonomous ocean-vehicles of PLOCAN has carried out various scientific, technical and training missions in 2025, totaling 206 days of service of which 105 days have been sea-operations, with a navigation record of approximately 1.700 nautical miles, highlighting operations conducted across the North and South shore of the Canary Archipelago with special relevance in Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma islands.
The missions have been coordinated from the Underwater Vehicles, Instruments and Machines (VIMAS) area in ten main operations that have allowed the gather of nearly two-million data related to physical and biogeochemical essential ocean and climate variables, through the operation of six different technologies for both water column profiling and surface monitoring: Seaglider, Slocum, AutoNaut, SeaExplorer, WaveGlider and Sailbuoy.
The operations of PLOCAN’s fleet of autonomous ocean-vehicles have covered local, national and international areas in response to initiatives and requests from infrastructure’s users with needs for observing the marine environment through state-of-the-art unmanned mobile devices, based on its performance in safety, reliability and environmental sustainability.
The activities carried out have enabled cooperation with the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), sharing operational and logistical resources based on specific needs raised. In particular, the activity in the PLOCAN Integrated Observatory and surrounding areas in 2025 has involved undertaking scientific-technical missions of diverse nature and scope within the framework of international programs and projects (PureWind, AQUARIUS, DELTA, PERSEO, Atlantic Whale Deal, ESTOC-EMSO Ocean Time Series Station and Mission Atlantic), in some cases of special relevance and uniqueness, consequence of the integration of new state-of-the-art sensors for validation in real operational environments.
Among the scientific missions carried out, transnational accesses higlights within the framework of the FLUCARO, GLICARO, THINkinAZUL, CIDIHUB, GEORGE and Mission Atlantic projects, in response to requests from the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change (IOCAG) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, the Center for Marine Sciences and Technologies (MARUM) of the University of Bremen (UB), and leading companies such as AutoNaut, WSENSE, GMU o Teledyne Marine, among others.
PLOCAN, as gliderport infrastructure, is member of leading European initiatives related to the Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS), OceanGliders (World Glider Program of the Global Ocean Observing System, GOOS) or the European Multidisciplinary Deep-Ocean Observatory Network (EMSO).
In these European initiatives, PLOCAN contributes to the analysis and application of international protocols and standards for the operation and provision of services with autonomous ocean monitoring platforms, as well as the management and dissemination of the data gathered. In this context, the update and improvement of capabilities undertaken in 2025 through the procurement of new science-payload units intended to cover specific observing needs through its specific configuration of meteorological, biogeochemical and acoustic sensors, as well as a new tender release to procure of a new glider unit.
PLOCAN’s leadership in coordinating the European Glider Task Team within the framework of the EuroGOOS initiative has continued throughout the year 2025. At the national level, PLOCAN continues to contribute to two leading working groups: the one on uncrewed navigation led by the General Directorate of the Merchant Marine (DGMM), and the Spanish Committee of Ocean-glider Operators acting as coordinator in partnership with AZTI, SOCIB, IEO/CSIC and ULPGC.
XV Glider School edition
The VIMAS area organized the 15th edition of the Glider School, a highly specialized training initiative promoted by PLOCAN since 2011, and which brought together students and collaborators from sixteen countries from four continents, together with the main global manufacturers of commercial technologies, continuing its commitment as international benchmark forum for high-level training in ocean-observing technologies.
To date, the Glider School has trained 246 students from 42 countries (five continents), with the direct involvement of 29 companies and 23 leading institutions in the sector, which has enabled to address new synergies of diverse nature and scope in sciences, technologies and marine-maritime services at national, European and international level, which highlights once again the strategic role that Unique Scientific-Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) play within the framework of technological development and provision of operational services through their highly-specialized capabilities.
Sentinel-Redwing Slocum Glider program.
The Sentinel-Redwing Slocum Glider initiative, led by Teledyne Marine in collaboration with Rutgers University, is launching the first-ever attempt at a global circumnavigation by an autonomous underwater glider. The vehicle—named Redwing, a next-generation Slocum Sentinel—has been designed for very long-duration missions, covering tens of thousands of kilometers and collecting critical oceanographic observations that will improve climate models, weather forecasting, and maritime domain surveillance during a planned multi-year campaign.
Within this framework, PLOCAN is a strategic partner for the Atlantic phase of the project. The first technical stop of Redwing’s voyage is planned for Gran Canaria, where PLOCAN will contribute infrastructure capacity and technological services. This contribution includes facilities for receiving and preparing the glider, logistical and operational support, and access to telemetry and data analysis networks that will allow the mission to continue, and the scientific information gathered during transit to be processed. PLOCAN’s availability in Gran Canaria makes the platform a key node, serving as a scientific and technical services infrastructure to guarantee the technical and scientific continuity of the autonomous cruise.
The success of the Sentinel Mission is not only scientifically valuable, but also demonstrative as it showcases the capability to operate unmanned platforms on a planetary scale and the usefulness of regional infrastructures like PLOCAN for integrating cutting-edge missions. The collaboration between Teledyne, Rutgers, and territorial nodes like PLOCAN exemplifies a distributed operating model—central development and control missions supported by local hubs providing technical services, logistics, and analysis—that will keep the glider on course and maximize the scientific and operational return of this first planned circumnavigation.
Institutional outreach
Through the VIMAS installation, during 2024 PLOCAN organized and/or joined 24 international and national forums (conference, panel, etc.) related to scientific-technological topics such as robotics, uncrewed navigation, governance and management of marine observation through research and training infrastructures, highlighting Ocean Business, Underwater Intervention, Jornadas de Buques Autónomos DGMM, OCEANS IEEE, EuroGOOS, Marine Technology Society (MTS) Conference Series, UG2, BTCA, UDT, EXAIL User Conference, FEINDEF, among others.
