Teledyne Marine and Kongsberg Discovery are working collectively to combine the Kongsberg EK80 WBT Mini Scientific echo sounder onto the Teledyne Slocum G3s Glider.
The energy-efficient Kongsberg EK80 WBT Mini is a compact model of the Vast Band Transceiver (WBT), utilized by marine analysis vessels worldwide to determine and quantify a variety of targets corresponding to fish, plankton, bubbles, oil droplets, and bodily oceanographic options corresponding to turbulence.
The Slocum Glider is the world’s most prolific autonomous gliding platform, a subsea automobile that makes use of modifications in buoyancy to effectively transfer via the water, permitting it to persistently monitor the ocean water column for months at a time, and transmit gathered knowledge shoreside by way of an iridium satellite tv for pc connection. Slocum Gliders are used throughout a wide-ranging set of missions, together with deployments serving Oceanographers, Fisheries, Vitality Producers, and Army prospects.
Rendering of Teledyne Slocum G3s Glider with Kongsberg WBT Mini EK80 Integration (Picture: Teledyne Marine)
The EK80 integration on the Slocum homes the WBT Mini electronics in a stress vessel ahead of the glider’s buoyancy engine, behind the nostril sonar dome. Two transducers are mounted in a flooded moist bay between this stress vessel and the glider’s ahead part. Customers are provided transducer frequency choices of 120kHz / 200kHz or 200kHz / 333 kHz, both upward or downward going through.
The mix of those applied sciences permits for long run knowledge gathering of acoustic goal density and dispersal all through the water column of a specified space. It permits customers to grasp how modifications in local weather, surroundings or human-driven components have an effect on a water mass’s ecology, particularly when mixed with different accessible sensing choices on the glider that acquire biogeochemical and bodily ocean knowledge.
Teledyne mentioned it has beforehand put in the EK80 onto its Slocum glider on a venture foundation for a number of prospects with nice early success. The College of Alaska Fairbanks’ glider, Gretel, has been deployed a number of instances with the EK80 gathering useful knowledge for fisheries analysis. This collaborative effort supplies a proper and streamlined integration. Gross sales of this new echo sounder bundle have already commenced with scientists at Akvaplan-niva of Norway and the College of Delaware ordering the primary items for supply summer time of 2024.
Dr. Tyler Hennon performing last checkout on the College of Alaska’s EK80-enabled Slocum glider Gretel earlier than launch in Resurrection Bay, Alaska. (Picture: Hank Statscewich)
“The combination of the scientific echo sounder EK80 from Kongsberg within the Slocum glider G3 from Teledyne will enable harvesting distinctive knowledge to explain the organic construction and functioning of the pelagic ecosystem throughout depths,” mentioned Lionel Camus, Supervisor Digital Options of Akvaplan-niva, “Akvaplan ‘s marine scientists are excited to have their Slocum G3 rigged with the echo sounder along with the underwater imaginative and prescient profiler (UVP6) with the actual intention to review the ‘tremendous swarm’ of Calanus finmarchicus inhabiting the Norwegian Sea. Additional, this new characteristic will open new functions in marine sciences,”.
“I feel the mixing of this expertise goes to considerably improve the flexibility of Slocum Gliders to do leading edge analysis,” added Dr. Matt Oliver, Professor of Marine Science and Coverage at College of Delaware.
“Kongsberg Discovery is happy to announce the mixing of the EK80 scientific echo sounder into the Teledyne Slocum Glider, enabling assortment of long-term knowledge units of acoustic scattering, and different environmental variables, for tutorial, army, and business functions. This collaboration between Kongsberg Discovery and Teledyne Marine supplies a novel and significant resolution for gathering high-resolution knowledge at depth,” mentioned Scott Loranger – Acoustician and Purposes Scientist at Kongsberg Discovery. “By bringing the excessive decision, excessive frequency echo sounders deep beneath water, we can determine, classify, and quantify a variety of targets out of the attain of conventional shipboard echo sounders.”
“We at Teledyne are extraordinarily excited to introduce the Kongsberg EK80 as a proper sensor providing on the Slocum Glider,” mentioned Shea Quinn, Product Line Supervisor of the Slocum Glider at Teledyne Marine, “The Slocum supplies a novel new platform for EK80 customers to assemble long-term echo sounder knowledge all through the water column at a cheaper price level than conventional analysis vessels. Combining the EK80 with different sensor choices on the Slocum will enable customers to achieve a novel and complete understanding of their areas of operation,”.
