Coastal Observatory, Liverpool Bay, Irish Sea

Glider operations

	Coastal tide gauges
	Ferry measurements
	Fixed locations
	Glider operations
	Met stations
	Radar
	Rivers
	Satellite
	Webcams

Glider Pre-Launch
Wings not attached

Glider at surface to make satellite call home

Glider Archive

» 2005 experiment

Glider underwater

Latest operational information
On the 24th of March 2010 the Glider Team launched Glider-117 (Zephyr) from a location 10 km offshore from North Wales. Its mission is to collect data on a survey transect across the Irish Sea.

It will slowly make its way across the Irish Sea to the start of transect and will continue doing this until told to come home. It has enough battery power to last at least 30 days.

Further information will follow during the mission.

Transect 53 44'N, along 3 30' W and 4 30' W

It will reach the track start in the next few days (at 0.4 m/s).

26 March 16:02
It is currently heading West from a position to the West of the Hamilton North Gas Field and battling against the inward tide.

28 March 21:34
It has now completed its first survey. It is on route to another area further towards the West (ETA Monday afternoon).

31 March 11:48
Glider is currently on its second survey battling through 4m waves.

1 April 21:10
The Glider has now travelled 163km on its first two missions at an average speed of 0.27m/s.

12 April 16:00
The Glider has now been recovered off the coast of North Wales. We are now in the process of analysing the data collected during its 350km journey.

How the Glider dives whilst making measurements

The Glider is an autonomous underwater vehicle which can move up and down in the ocean by changing its buoyancy. A rudder and wings allow steerable gliding, moving it forward.

It can move at speeds of up to 0.4m/s in a vertical sawtooth-shaped path with a range of about 30 days (1500 km), while measuring temperature, conductivity and other ocean parameters.

Long term deployment missions of the Glider in areas such as the Irish Sea will eventually provide valuable data for marine and climate studies.

However, in the short term the Glider technology provides another tool for monitoring the water quality since the data can be relayed back to base in near-real time via satellite communications.

Furthermore, it can also be re-directed from set missions (via satellite communications) to investigate other areas within the locality, that might be more scientifically interesting (e.g. a developing algal bloom identified from satellite observations).

» More information about Glider technology