Spanish Navy’s offshore patrol vessel Meteoro recently helped technicians from the PLOCAN (Canary Islands Oceanic Platform) recover a damaged glider travelling from Madeira to the Canary Islands conducting several oceanographic surveys.
The AUV, also known as Glider, was recovered 40 miles north of the Canary Islands.
It was launched on April 12 in Madeira by a group of PLOCAN scientists in collaboration with the Madeira Oceanic Observatory and the Portuguese Naval Hydrographic Institute.
The initiative is part of the European AtlantOS-H2020 project of which PLOCAN is a partner. It is a regional contribution to the EU oceanic observation program of the Atlantic Ocean through the Maritime and Naval Monitoring Network R3M.
These autonomous underwater vehicles are designed to collect biogeochemical samples at sea by means of modern sensors. Data include temperature, salinity, oxygen in the water, pigments and particles in suspension down to 1,000 meters in an area covering a 500 nautical miles section between Madeira and the Canary Islands.