Marine Gliders

Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Chiara Monforte

Last updated on 19 Nov 2023

Marine gliders, a type of autonomous underwater vehicle, are a measurement platform which carries oceanographic sensors to remote regions of the worlds’ oceans. They are characterised by long-endurance (up to 1 year) and can be remotely piloted from shore. The measurements they make depend on the sensor payload, and may include ocean temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration, bio-optical measurements, turbulence, current speed and direction, and more. Gliders have been in operation since the early 2000s, commercially-available some years later, and are now relatively prolific (with 10s of groups across the world using them for oceanographic research).

In the EO group, we use marine gliders to make measurements of oceanographic properties and estimates of turbulent dissipation. Some examples of scientific and methodological advances using glider-based oceanographic data are given below.

Estimating vertical seawater velocity (w)

Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Charles C. Eriksen , Peter B. Rhines , Ramsey R. Harcourt . Determining Vertical Velocities from Seaglider. J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 2011.

Estimating turbulent dissipation from glider w

D. Gwyn Evans , N. S. Lucas , Victoria S. Hemsley , Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Adrian Martin , Stuart C. Painter , Alberto C. Naveira Garabato , Mark E. Inall , Matthew R. Palmer . Annual cycle of turbulence estimated from Seagliders. Geophys. Res. Lett., 2018.

Bieito Fernandez-Castro , D. Gwyn Evans , Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Clement Vic , Alberto C. Naveira Garabato . Breaking of internal waves and turbulent dissipation in an anticyclonic mode water eddy. J. Phys. Ocean., 2020.

Estimating primary production from gliders

Victoria S. Hemsley , Timothy J. Smyth , Adrian P. Martin , Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Andrew F. Thompson , Gillian Damerell , Stuart C. Painter . Estimating Oceanic Primary Production Using Vertical Irradiance and Chlorophyll Profiles from Ocean Gliders in the North Atlantic. Environmental Science Technology, 2015.

Horizontal density gradients from gliders

Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Peter B. Rhines , Charles C. Eriksen . Horizontal stratification during Deep convection in the Labrader Sea. J. Phys. Ocean., 2014.

Louis Clement , Eleanor Frajka-Williams , Nicolai von Oppeln-Bronikowski , I. Goszczko , Brad de Young . Cessation of Labrador Sea Convection Triggered by Distinct Fresh and Warm (Sub)Mesoscale Flows. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 2023.