Towards a low cost observing system based on low logistic SeaExplorer glider

Newly arrived among the autonomous observing platforms, the SeaExplorer glider already confirms its capability to resolve in-situ dynamical features at regional scales and associated biogeochemical processes. Its first long-term mission lasted 60 days with one single battery charge, covered the summer to winter transition and 1 200 kilometers with several transects across the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean), acquiring hydrological profiles with a Seabird pumped CTD and Dissolved Oxygen sensor until 500m depth. This first achievement, assessed in the frame of the operational ocean observing system MOOSE, confirmed the performance and ability of the glider to collect scientific quality data over long-term missions. In the following months, many missions have been successfully performed such as one for the large NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) glider experiment REP14-MED in Sardinian Sea, and another one as part of the European FP7 ACCESS project for the LOCEAN lab in the Barents Sea at the North Polar front to monitor the physical and biological features over a north-south transect.