About
Gliders
What gliders can do, and why they complement other GOOS platforms.
Underwater gliders are small, buoyancy-driven autonomous platforms that profile the water column over deployments lasting weeks to months, measuring physical, biogeochemical, and acoustic Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs). Unlike propeller-driven vehicles, gliders use controlled changes in buoyancy for vertical motion, converting that into forward propulsion through fixed wings. This makes them highly energy-efficient, enabling deployments of weeks to months over ranges of hundreds to thousands of kilometres. Gliders surface periodically to transmit data and receive instructions via satellite, enabling real-time data delivery and adaptive mission control from shore.
Gliders provide observing capabilities that complement those of other GOOS platforms:
Long endurance and mobility
Sustained deployments of weeks to months, covering hundreds to thousands of kilometres.
Adaptive sampling
Can be redirected to track fronts, eddies, water masses, and other evolving features.
Four-dimensional observations
Resolving fine-scale spatial and temporal variability not captured by fixed or freely-drifting platforms.
Ability to operate in challenging environments
Under ice, shallow continental shelves, fjords, boundary currents, and marginal seas.
Resolving variability across scales
Observations spanning horizontal scales of kilometres to thousands of kilometres, vertical scales of centimetres to kilometres, and sub-daily to interannual variability.
Cross-discipline measurements
Physical, biogeochemical, and acoustic observations in a single deployment, with low hydrodynamic noise making gliders particularly well-suited to passive acoustic monitoring.
Near-real-time data delivery
Data transmitted via satellite at each surfacing, enabling adaptive mission control.