SmartBuoys
These autonomous devices are moored, "intelligent", automated,
multi-parameter recording platforms used to collect marine
environmental data. The data they collect aids or
provides:
- improved understanding of environmental variability
- new insights into ecosystem function
- early warning and flood forecasting
- monitoring change in marine biodiversity
- improved model validation and testing.
Ten years of high-frequency data has provided our customers with
robust data sets, enabling them to make sound decisions about water
quality, for example.
Our SmartBuoys collect timeseries of surface (at 1 metre)
salinity, temperature, turbidity, chlorophyll fluorescence and
nitrate concentration. Deployments can, for instance, highlight
increases in cooling and/or nutrient-rich freshwater inputs. An
example is the WARP Anchorage deployment, which
shows ten years worth of data.
A full list of current and historic monitoring sites is available in
our Science section, and real-time SmartBuoy data can be seen by
using the links in the right column.
Typical specification
The following is an example of a SmartBuoy sensor
configuration: user requirements dictate exact specifications.
| Instrument/sensor |
Measurement |
Variable |
| CTD |
conductivity, temperature,
pressure |
salinity (psu)
density (units) |
| Fluorometer (blue LED type) |
chlorophyll fluorescence |
phytoplankton biomass (mg chl m-3) |
| Optical back-scatter sensor |
suspended particle load |
(mg l-1) |
| Quantum irradiance sensor |
downwelling photosynthetically active radiation
(400 - 700 nm) |
Ed (light available for phytoplankton growth at
depth d)
k, vertical extinction coefficient (m-1)
|
| In situ nutrient analyser (NAS3X) |
|
nitrate concentration μM silicate concentration
μM1 |
| Aqua monitor |
|
phytoplankton numbers and species composition,
nutrient concentration2, salinity |
| System Monitor UMI |
multi-channel logger incorporating
CTD, controls cellular telephone telemetry |
If you would like to know more about SmartBuoys, and the
monitoring and modelling work that we do, please contact us.