Rutgers Glider Successfully Crosses Atlantic
Google Earth Map Mashup of Rutgers "Scarlet Knight" Glider Crossing
The “Scarlet Knight,” a Rutgers-Slocum autonomous underwater glider, has successfully completed its crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The glider surfaced inside Spanish territorial waters last weekend (14 NOV) at 8:17 UTC, after a voyage of nearly 7,300 kilometers over 201 days, beginning April 21 off the coast of New Jersey. The achievement was reported on the blog website of the Rutgers University team of students and professors that is controlling the glider.
Along the way, the team has had to deal with fine-scale navigation problems made complicated by sometimes scarce, sometimes conflicted data about currents, temperatures, and sea surface height. The group made great strides in developing new “mashups” to help display the various layers of data on Google Earth maps and its experiences in correlating remote sensor data with actual observed conditions from the glider will be extremely beneficial to scientists and organizations like the U.S. Navy.
We will have more coverage of the voyage as the team prepares to leave for Europe at the end of this month to arrange for the pickup of the glider.
In the image above, you can see the glider’s most recently reported positions. The yellow line to the west of the latest position marks the edge of the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone, while the yellow line to the south indicates the border with the Portuguese EEZ. The thin colored paths at the upper right of the image are the designated shipping lanes that the team is trying to avoid.
Copyright © 2009 by Marine Science Today, a Publication of OceanLines LLC
