The two recent trendy deep sea ‘Slocum’ gliders launched by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services. Photo: Special Arrangement
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), beneath the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has simply launched two recent trendy deep sea ‘Slocum’ gliders in the Bay of Bengal, one programmed in direction of the north and different in direction of the south to study the bodily and biogeochemical parameters of the sea and get an perception into the climate change.
The state of the artwork gliders are outfitted with sensors to observe temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, PAR – photosynthetic energetic radiation in the sea water amongst others. The gliders have been deployed from the Ocean Research Vehicle ‘Sagar Manjusha’ of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) off the Chennai coast outdoors of the EEZ – unique financial zone boundary.
Senior scientists E. Pattabhi Rama Rao and A. Aneesh Lotliker knowledgeable that these gliders can go underwater up to a depth of about 1,000 metres and can floor 4 to 5 occasions a day, repeatedly giving information for the satellite tv for pc to decide up and relay the similar to the newly established ‘National Glider Operations Facility’ at INCOIS right here at Pragatinagar, Kukatpally.
“The best part of these gliders which run on lithium-ion battery is they come with an extended battery life of nine months and more to cover both the north and south transect of the Bay of the Bengal. We can easily monitor and manoeuvre their functions and get real time data as well as updates about the battery life. They can travel up to 15 km a day,” they defined.
While the mission comes beneath the ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ of the Ministry, it’s not for the first time that the institute has deployed gliders to scour round the sea. Two years in the past, in the maiden effort, two gliders had been deployed as a trial run into the Bay of Bengal.
“They moved around the sea for up to 2.5 months. We retrieved the glider and successfully recovered the more exhaustive stored data. It is currently being assessed here,” stated Scientist S. Shivaprasad. INCOIS has about 4 gliders – two present process ‘ballasting’ and is planning to supply six new ones for deployment in the different components of the Indian Ocean.
In ‘ballasting’ the gliders recovered from the sea are retrofitted appropriate for the waters through which they’re to be deployed like salinity and others. For occasion, the gliders utilized in Bay in Bengal will likely be of totally different yardstick as the sea freshwater from rivers of Ganga and Brahmaputra pouring in, whereas in the Arabian Sea such freshwater inlet isn’t a lot, he stated.
“Oceans play a key role in regulating the earth’s climate by uptake and redistribution of anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide. Data from ocean gliders together with other in situ and satellite observing platforms will play a key role in enhancing our understanding of the ocean-climate nexus.” stated INCOIS Director T. Srinivasa Kumar.
