Deployments

Projects

The ESD deploys gliders under several different projects:

  • FREEBYRD: Operation FREEBYRD is a long-term program to replace ship-based surveys with autonomous vehicles to estimate Antarctic krill biomass in support of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

  • REFOCUS: Reimagining Ecosystem and Fisheries Observations by Combining two UxS fleets (REFOCUS) aims to augment ship-based ecosystem monitoring using autonomous underwater gliders equipped with sensors for monitoring the physical and biological environment. The three primary objectives are to 1) Conduct regular (approximately every other month) deployments in the California Current in areas where the CalCOFI Program currently samples and is likely to sample in the future; 2) Improve capacity to collect data during event-driven ecosystem perturbations (e.g., marine heatwaves or harmful algal blooms); and 3) To alleviate competition for ship time.

  • ECOSWIM: Operation ECOSWIM is for glider surveys in the California CCE off of Humboldt and Morro Bay, California, in the Southern California waters of the Pacific Ocean. These surveys may collect krill biomass estimates, among other scientific goals.

  • SANDIEGO: Test deployments off of San Diego. These deployments may be, for instance, to test a glider before it goes to the Antarctic, or to test new sensors and/or sensor configurations for the Enhanced Data Acquisition Passive Acoustics Strategic Initiative, the Optics Strategic Initiative, or the Uncrewed Systems Strategic Initiative.

Deployments

The below table lists all (in progress) ESD (and formerly AERD) glider deployments, along with basic information about the deployment. The table also includes links to post-deployment reports, and links to data files where they exist. See below for details on the data links.

Note that deployment names are always ‘glider name’-‘year-month-day’. For instance, deployment amlr08-20220530. Is the deployment of glider amlr08 that began on 30 May 2022.

See this spreadsheet (NOAA internal) for more details.

Year Project Deployment Location Sensors Report ERDDAP Internal Data
2025 SANDIEGO unit_1024-20250224 San Diego CTD, Ecopuck, PAR, WISPR link {in progress} {in progress}
—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–
2024/25 FREEBYRD amlr01-20241120 Antarctic CTD, Optode, Ecopuck, AZFP link {in progress} {in progress}
2024/25 FREEBYRD amlr08-20241120 Antarctic CTD, Optode, Ecopuck, Nortek link {in progress} {in progress}
—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–
2024 ECOSWIM calanus-20241019 Humboldt CTD, Optode, Ecopuck, Nortek {in progress} {in progress} glider; acoustics
2024 REFOCUS george-20240907 Santa Barbara CTD, Optode,Ecopuck, Narrow Shadowgraph link {in progress} {in progress}
2024 REFOCUS george-20240530 San Diego CTD, Optode, Narrow Shadowgraph link {in progress} images
2024 REFOCUS john-20240312 San Diego CTD, Optode, Nortek, Shadowgraph link {in progress} {in progress}
2024 REFOCUS ringo-20240312 San Diego CTD, Optode, Nortek, Wide Shadowgraph link {in progress} {in progress}
… … … … … … … …
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