Evaluation of Ocean Currents Observed from Autonomous Surface Vehicles

The development of autonomous surface vehicles, such as the Boeing Liquid Robotics Wave Glider, has revolutionized our ability to collect surface ocean–lower atmosphere observations, a crucial step toward developing better physical understanding of upper-ocean and air–sea interaction processes. Howe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology Vol. 40; no. 10; pp. 1121 - 1136
Main Authors: Hodges, Benjamin A., Grare, Laurent, Greenwood, Benjamin, Matsuyoshi, Kayli, Pizzo, Nick, Statom, Nicholas M., Farrar, J. Thomas, Lenain, Luc
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01.10.2023
Subjects:
Accuracy
Air-sea interaction
Autonomous surface vehicles
Compasses
Compensation
Experiments
Lower atmosphere
Motion compensation
Ocean currents
Oceans
Pitching
Position sensing
Robotics
Sensors
Surface vehicles
Surface waves
Vehicles
Velocity
Wind
United States > US
California
ISSN:0739-0572, 1520-0426
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The development of autonomous surface vehicles, such as the Boeing Liquid Robotics Wave Glider, has revolutionized our ability to collect surface ocean–lower atmosphere observations, a crucial step toward developing better physical understanding of upper-ocean and air–sea interaction processes. However, due to the wave-following nature of these vehicles, they experience rapid shifting, rolling, and pitching under the action of surface waves, making motion compensation of observations of ocean currents particularly challenging. We present an evaluation of the accuracy of Wave Glider–based ADCP measurements by comparing them with coincident and collocated observations collected from a bottom-mounted ADCP over the course of a week-long experiment. A novel motion compensation method, tailored to wave-following surface vehicles, is presented and compared with standard approaches. We show that the use of an additional position and attitude sensor (GPS/IMU) significantly improves the accuracy of the observed currents.
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ISSN:0739-0572
1520-0426
DOI:10.1175/JTECH-D-23-0066.1