From Australian Oceans Data Network
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IMOS - Ocean Gliders Facility

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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The Ocean Gliders Facility (formerly known as the Australian National Facility for Ocean Gliders (ANFOG)), deploys a fleet of gliders around Australia. The underwater ocean glider represents a technological revolution for oceanography. Autonomous ocean gliders can be built relatively cheaply, are controlled remotely and are reusable allowing them to make repeated subsurface ocean observations at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods. The data retrieved from the glider fleet will contribute to the study of the major boundary current systems surrounding Australia and their links to coastal ecosystems. The facilities' fleet consists of two types; Slocum gliders and Seagliders. Slocum gliders (named for Joshua Slocum, the first solo global circumnavigator), manufactured by Webb Research Corp are optimised for shallow coastal waters (<200m) where high manoeuvrability is needed. The facility will have Slocum gliders for deployment on the continental shelf. Seagliders, built at the University of Washington, are designed to operate more efficiently in the open ocean up to 1000m water depth. The facility uses their Seagliders to monitor the boundary currents and continental shelves, which is valuable for gathering long-term environmental records of physical, chemical and biological data not widely measured to date. Whilst the Slocum gliders, due to their low cost and operational flexibility, will be of great use in intensive coastal monitoring, both types of gliders weigh only 52kg, enabling them to be launched from small boats. They have a suite of sensors able to record temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll against position and depth The use of these contemporary gliders provides a unique opportunity to effectively measure the boundary currents off Australia, which are the main link between open-ocean and coastal processes. A number of gliders are operated with target regions including the Coral Sea, East Australian Current off New South Wales and Tasmania, Southern Ocean southwest of Tasmania, the Leeuwin and Capes Currents off South Western Australia and the Pilbara and Kimberly regions off North Western Australia.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title IMOS - Ocean Gliders Facility
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/de39061a-217b-4260-8376-40d981d6fd9a
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
chari.pattiaratchi@uwa.edu.au
Reference Period 27/05/2025
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "IMOS - Ocean Gliders Facility". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/imos-ocean-gliders-facility