The most advanced autonomous buoy ever developed in the UK has been launched off the coast of Devon to monitor the health of our oceans.
The Plymouth Marine Laboratory spent two years building the nearly nine-meter-high buoy, which is packed with sensors and monitoring equipment.
It cost over half a million pounds, weighs around three tons, and is powered solely by wind and solar power.
The buoy is part of a fleet of autonomous net-zero oceanic robots developed by the Laboratory
The buoy, which will be based five miles off the coast of Plymouth in the Western Channel Observatory, will monitor key indicators for climate research.
“It’s one of a kind,” said Oban Jones, a marine technologist for the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. “There’s nowhere else in the world right now that’s going to do what we’re doing,”
He told Sky News the data will be widely disseminated around the world. “It is a test and a trial, but it will also give us results which will be published on our website and which will help shape policy in the UK and abroad.”
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James Fishwick is responsible for operations and technology at the Western Channel Observatory.
He said: “We monitor standard things like temperature and salinity – but then we look at oxygen levels, nutrient levels in the water, the amount of plant life that is the basis of the food chain and we’re also looking at water clarity, pH levels, ocean acidification – all really key parameters for climate research. “
The sensors will be lowered to a depth of 50 meters – with the ability to measure and profile changes in the ocean every few inches.
The buoy will measure “all the really key parameters for climate research” including salinity and temperature as well as oxygen and nutrient levels
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-29 12:37:00
