PLOCAN, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) continue to collaboratively promote and strengthen the ocean-observing strategy in the Canary Islands through the seasonal program of glider missions at the Time Series Station ESTOC (deep node of the PLOCAN Integrated Observatory) and Deep Section of the Canary Islands: Study and observation of the climatic variability of the subtropical gyre in the Eastern Central North Atlantic (RAPROCAN Section), managed by PLOCAN and the IEO, respectively.
Proof of this is the start of a new mission, the first for 2022, which under the distinctive ESTOC 2022_1, and an estimated duration of three weeks, has a scheduled journey of approximately two hundred nautical miles making dives every three hours down to thousand meters deep using a SeaExplorer unit, belonging to PLOCAN’s fleet of autonomous marine vehicles, recently procured through the BlueUpgrade project.
The main goal of this seasonal glider program is to keep ongoing the ESTOC and RAPROCAN time series, through routine ocean-observations with more efficient and sustainable autonomous technologies than traditional methodologies such as research vessels
The ESTOC 2022_1 mission will allow the collection of nearly one million data on each of the five biogeochemical parameters of seawater observed (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and turbidity), in line with current programs, projects, standards and international methodologies related to the observation of the oceanic environment.
PLOCAN, as gliderport infrastructure member of leading European initiatives and working groups such as EGO, EuroGOOS, OceanGliders, OceanSites, EMSO, etc., contributes with this type of initiative both to the implementation of international protocols and standards for the operation of autonomous platforms for ocean-observing, 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 Coriolis and EMODNet initiatives, which makes it possible to have in real time the data collected by the glider, with quality control and European standardized format.
More information at PLOCAN Glider Portal
