Iridium telemetry of real-time ocean current data from USCG ATON buoy platforms

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Ocean Service's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services has designed and developed a system enhancement to improve data throughput from real-time, remote ocean current monitoring platforms. Aluminum clamp and payload are affixed to U.S. Coast Guard buoys, measure current profile and transmit directly to endpoint databases and web based monitoring applications. Legacy systems incorporate a line-of-sight radio link from the buoy to a land based shore station for data processing and telemetry. Our enhancements to the design have moved the data collection hardware and processing software to the buoy, incorporated an Iridium Short Burst Data modem for primary telemetry and cellular communications for on-demand troubleshooting access. Recent testing of the enhanced system has shown increases in throughput of >10% at some deployment sites and removed the range-from-shore limitation of line-of-sight radios without compromising deployment durations. The system is being transitioned to operations while additional testing is ongoing to identify further system design improvements.