Arctic remote autonomous measurement platform post CEAREX engineering report

Abstract

A series of instrumented Arctic buoys has been developed which is designed to be deployed in pack ice to measure and record data from meteorological and ocean sensors as well as from an accelerometer package inside the buoy. Sophisticated in situ processing is performed reducing the data capacitiy required for the system's optical disk recorder. Engineering development is described which aimed to identify and solve performance problems related to hardware and software deficiencies. One of the major hardware problems was that the optical disk was unreliable when exposed to the Arctic environment. Redesign was performed to insulate parts of the system from the cold. The test and evaluation sequence is described as well as the present status of all portions of the system. Sample field data are presented including multiband acoustic spectra as well as time series environmental data.