On the 12h November, MELOA team carried out the second WAVY Test Campaign on the Spanish coast. The test campaign had several different objectives, yet, a transversal objective is always to ensure proper functionality of the overall system: WAVY drifter performance, data communications, data storage and data visualization. Also supporting tools were tested for WAVY drifter's configurations, campaign management, and the recovery tool.
In total 20 WAVY were used, 17 WAVYLittoral and 3 WAVY Basic. It was the first campaign with such amount of WAVY drifters working at the same time! All the WAVY drifters worked properly, were robust enough to resist the launches from the beach, and capable communicate with a 4km distance from their location to the shore. The drifters were launched from the Obsea underwater observatory offshore, where there is installed an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measuring on realtime information about currents and waves. Data collected by the WAVY drifters will be compared with data from the ADCP to ensure proper measurements. The team found the sea too calm, so it was not possible to collect as much data as wanted. Nonetheless, giving that operations were such a success, the team was very satisfied and eager to collect more wave data on the next launch!
This activity is in-line with two of the use cases to be taken into account in the project: to improve safety at the beach with public demonstrations of the nearshore circulation, with emphasis on rip currents, and to stimulate citizen’s science by inviting the public to use WAVY drifters in the characterization of dynamic features of public concern. During the launches, it was explained to some citizens the objectives of the test and people were invited to participate in the experiment.
Check out the photo gallery!
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