Last May, Akvaplan-niva set up an oceanographic cruise in the Barent sea to study the physical processes at different scales that influence the ecosystem across the Polar Front.

The key idea behind the cruise was to carry out a detailed characterization of the Polar Front using a combination of traditional and autonomous sampling platforms and techniques, as classic sampling from a research vessel along with advanced autonomous vehicles can help to collect high resolution data in space and time.

To this end, Equinor financed the deployment of the Akvaplan-niva fleet of gliders with two Seaglider M1 and two Sailbuoys each rigged with advanced sensors.

One of the sea gliders was equipped with UVP6” (Hydroptic). Cyprus Subsea Consulting and Services did the integration of the instruments and operated the gliders at sea.

Additionally, there was one Sailbuoy rigged with an echo sounder EK80 from SIMRAD.

This year, the cruise will also take place, and Bioglider Partners CSCS and AKN are doing their best to install both UVP 6 and EK80 on the gliders. Will it be possible to have one sea glider with both instruments for this cruise? The hopes are high !

Full article here : Advanced autonomous robotics for environmental data collection at the Polar Front