Philippe de Saint Leger, CLS (France)
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The Argos system made it possible to relay the first in-situ observations of the open ocean by satellite in the early 1980s and continues to be a relevant technology for ocean science today, especially given that the new Kinéis constellation will launch 20 Argos-compatible nanosats starting in 2021. That is why MELOA consortium has selected Argos as the satellite system behind a new generation of drifting buoys, called WAVY, within the framework of an H2020-funded project, MELOA.
Argos was chosen as the satellite telemetry system for WAVY’s open ocean observations due to the system’s low energy consumption and robustness. The new Argos Transceiver developed within the project is based on the Artic Chipset, it will provide a very low consumption and low-cost solution for connecting assets at sea. The Artic chipset will provide the latest Argos functionalities as using the downlink for satellite pass prediction and Argos-4 HighData rate transfer for big packets of data like Waves Spectra information.
The data collected by WAVY Ocean, WAVY Ocean-Plus and WAVY Ocean Atmo (once available) will be processed by CLS and then delivered through the MELOA portal as open data to the board of scientists involved in the project but also to operational ocean and weather communities.
Ultimately, this project aims to inspire buoy manufacturers to produce low-cost buoys based on Argos technology and provide a new generation of oceanographers with affordable alternatives to fill in the gaps of our current ocean observing networks.
To learn more, read The WAVY Drifter Revolution: Towards Low-Cost Ocean Observations.
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14/03/2019 |