Sensor Network Infrastructure: Moorings, Mobile Platforms, and Integrated Acoustics

Abstract

Much of the cost and effort of new ocean observatories will be in the infrastructure that directly supports sensors, such as moorings and mobile platforms, which in turn connect to a "backbone" infrastructure, such as cabled seafloor nodes. Three elements of this sensor network infrastructure are in various stages of development: a cable-connected mooring system with a profiler under real-time control with inductive battery charging; a glider with integrated acoustic communications and broadband receiving capability; and integrated acoustic navigation, communications, and tomography, and ambient sound recording on various scales.