Solcum Gliders to Bring Oceanography Into the 21st Century

Researchers at Texas A&M are working on exploring the 95 per cent of the currently unexplored waters in the world.

According to the battalion online, they will be using the Solcum glider which was developed by a team of scientists and technicians from the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group in both the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M and Texas A&M Galveston.

Anthony Knap, director of the research group, stated: “While other research gathering devices, such as those on ships, simply float on the ocean, these go under the water and can even stay out during dreadful weather and can keep doing their job. These remote systems are really going to take over.”

Zhankun Wang, assistant research scientist, believes that the gliders will be the future of oceanography.

This technology can be altered for optimal use by scientists depending on their research and region, and is bound to bring the field of oceanography into the 21st century.

[mappress]

Subsea World News Staff, August 13, 2013; Image: whoi.edu