Marine Observing Systems

The activities of the Marine Observing Systems Division at OPTIMARE are mainly focused on the acquisition and preliminary processing of physical and bio-optical data. OPTIMARE develops and sells customized instruments for special tasks. The company also produces state-of-the-art and competitive instruments as well as systems for coastal and marine monitoring.

NEMO-Float

OPTIMARE has developed the Navigating European Marine Observer (NEMO)-Float for the research programme ARGO (www.argo.ucsd.edu). NEMO has been further developed on the basis of the SOLO-Float. NEMO ascends from a depth of up to 2000 meters in regular intervals to the surface and transmits the collected data via the ARGOS satellite system. The NEMO-Float has been further improved to allow the deployment under ice, positioning through GPS and RAFOS, as well as the integration of new sensors and telemetries.

PopUp-Buoys

Recovery of oceanographic data from moored sensors normally requires operation of large research vessels. PopUp-buoys serve as data capsules; they can receive and store data from moored sensors via wireless IrDA data transfer. After a given time or a specific command, the PopUps are individually released from the sensor-PopUp array to ascend to the sea surface from where data are transferred via Iridium communication to a receiving station.