500 Robotic Ocean Floats to Survey to 2,000 Meters Below Surface

It was reported by MSN.com that A $53 million federal grant will enable Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other organizations to build a fleet of robotic sensors to monitor conditions in oceans around the world. The data will be freely available to researchers, educators and government officials within a day of its collection, and will help inform fisheries management, climate science and studies on ocean warming and acidification. It will also be broadly available to the public, with workshops, web-based curricula, and hands-on activities for teachers, students and scientists. School and college classes will be able to adopt floats, and student activities will be offered with the national Marine Advanced Technology Education program. Courses based on the float technology will be offered through The Sandbox, a makerspace at Scripps Oceanography. This story originally appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Thanks to CDR David Place (USN/Ret), davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com, and Robin E. Alexander, President ATC, alexander technical[at]gmail[dot]com, for their assistance with this report, which is scheduled to appear in the next edition of the UNMANNED SYSTEMS NEWS (USN).

David distributes the Unmanned Systems News (USN), a free, comprehensive newsletter in PDF format every week or two, as well as serial news flashes, from which this NREF news update was sourced. To be included in his distribution, simply send David a subscribe request to davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com.