Portuguese Navy recovers autonomous underwater glider drifting off Aveiro

On Wednesday morning, the Canary Islands Oceanic Platform (PLOCAN) informed the Portuguese Navy's Hydrographic Institute (IH) that an underwater glider (also known as an ocean glider) belonging to that research center was malfunctioning and drift, about 60 nautical miles (111 km) west of Aveiro.

This underwater glider was engaged in the scope of the European project iFado and would then collect observations between Aveiro and Sines in the scope of another European project - EuroMarine Robots - in a partnership between PLOCAN and IH.

It was promptly engaged by the Portuguese Navy, the NRP Setúbal with a technical team from the IH on board, to detect and recover the glider. This urgency was motivated not only by the high cost of this equipment, which was at risk of collision as it was on the surface in the vicinity of maritime traffic corridors, but also by the high contribution that this system has provided to the observation of our sea.

At dawn on 10 September, the ship successfully detected and retrieved the glider. This system will then be delivered to the IH's Oceanographic Instrumentation Center, where, together with a PLOCAN team, an attempt will be made to repair it so that it can proceed with the initially planned mission.

The trajectory and oceanographic measurements performed by this underwater glider can be followed in:

http://obsplatforms.plocan.eu/vehicle/mission/100/