A Wave Glider autonomous surface vehicle, from the PLOCAN fleet, which was put into operation in November in Faial Island (Azores, Portugal) within the framework of the European project “Innovation in the Deep Atlantic Ocean Framework (iFADO )”, was recovered in the dock of Taliarte, completing successfully its cooperative and transnational mission.
During the 57 days of the mission, the Wave Glider autonomous vehicle covered a total of 2.000km. The mission started in Azores, continued near Madeira and finished in ESTOC (European Oceanic Time Series Station – Gran Canaria). A post-processing of the data obtained by the sensors installed in the vehicle during this mission will be developed.
The Wave Glider has collected meteorological and oceanographic variables, including acoustic traces of cetaceans of interest in the area of operation using a passive acoustic monitoring hydrophone system, which has been incorporated in collaboration with the University of Algarve (Portugal), within the framework of the collaboration between iFADO and the “Joint Framework for Ocean Noise in the Atlantic Seas (JONAS)” European project, which objective is to address threats to biodiversity from underwater noise pollution on sensitive species in the NE Atlantic by streamlining ocean noise monitoring and risk management on a transnational basis.
iFADO is a four-year project, funded by the EU-Program Interreg Atlantic Area through its 2016 call. It is coordinated by the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) of Portugal, and has the participation of twenty partners both public and private sectors representing Portugal, Ireland, United Kingdom, Spain and France. For its execution, iFADO combines ocean monitoring both on-site and remote through conventional systems and methodologies with cutting-edge technologies standing autonomous platforms such ocean gliders. PLOCAN is responsible for work package five, dedicated to emerging technologies for on-site ocean monitoring a task where the glider mission started takes place.
