Expanding ocean-monitoring capabilities in the Macaronesia with unmanned mobile platforms

Abstract

The Macaronesia is a vast area playing a key role in the East boundary of the Central North-Atlantic ocean-circulation system. Despite a significant research activity in ocean monitoring for decades using a wide range of observing systems and methodologies, the area is still under-sampled, mainly due access and coverage constrains, as well as the observation sustainability. Ocean gliders offer a new approach in terms of capacity and sustainability, allowing undertake ocean-monitoring in spatiotemporal scales hitherto unavailable. The present work shows preliminary results from the latest mission with buoyancy-driven and surface ocean gliders in the area, whose main goal focuses on to improve and expand ocean observation capabilities strengthening glider endurance lines between archipelagos, as part of the global ocean-observation strategy conducted by the Marine & Maritime Network (R3M), as regional contribution directly aligned with European and international initiatives and strategies in the North Atlantic basin.