PLOCAN and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) through its unit SITMA (Integrated Marine Technology Service) continue to promote and strengthen their collaborative framework in ocean observation in the Canary Islands through the seasonal program of glider missions at the Station of ESTOC Time Series (deep node of the Integrated Observatory of PLOCAN), which includes the seasonal mission ESTOC 2021_2.
This mission of 18 days duration and 202 nautical miles continuously navigated with an underwater glider, which has performed every three hours a dive to a depth of 1000 meters and has completed a total of 93 dives, has collected close to one million data for each of the five biogeochemical parameters of seawater observed (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and turbidity), all in accordance with current standard programs and methodologies international organizations regarding the observation of the ocean environment.
The objective of the mission is to contribute to the continuity of the ESTOC time series and to increase the presence in the ocean with the routine operation and use of autonomous technologies such as underwater gliders, more efficient and sustainable for this type of observation than more traditional methodologies such as oceanographic vessels.
PLOCAN, gliderport infrastructure, member of reference European initiatives and working groups such as EGO, EuroGOOS, OceanGliders, OceanSites, EMSO, EUMR, etc., contributes with this type of activity to the implementation of international platform operation protocols and standards autonomous ocean monitoring, as well as to the management and dissemination of the data generated. An example of this is the contribution to the European strategy for the management and standardization of oceanographic data through direct cooperation with the Coriolis and EMODNet initiatives, which makes it possible to have real-time data collected by the glider in each of the dives, with quality control and standardized format.
More information on Portal Glider PLOCAN
