Determining Seaglider Velocities Automatically

Abstract

Determination of underwater glider speed along its glide path is critical to recovering important oceanographic observations, including vertical water velocities and depth-averaged currents (DAC), as well as for properly correcting passive flow-dependent sensors, including thermal-inertia effects in unpumped conductivity-temperature (CT) instruments. To estimate these velocities accurately we developed a completely automated flight model system (herein ‘FMS’) that solves the flight model regressions regularly and consistently recovers well-constrained flight model parameters for each dive of a deployment. It is designed to analyze both on-going and completed deployments, providing, in the former case, warnings and suggestions to the pilot about flight performance and parameter settings that could improve glider's navigational performance at sea.