A new generation of TABS II buoy for the Texas Automated Buoy System

The year 2005 marks the tenth anniversary of the Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS). The buoy network was developed for the Texas General Lands Office (TGLO) in support of oil spill modeling, mitigation and response in the Gulf of Mexico. The government of Texas, and in particular the TGLO have supported the TABS program since its inception in 1995 at seven locations in the Gulf of Mexico. The program currently has nine locations with the two additional sites receiving support through a joint industry project supported by a consortium of oil companies operating in the Flower Garden Banks region of the gulf. The initial buoy systems were developed by the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) of Texas A&M University (TAMU) with the Woods Hole Group (WHG) of Falmouth, MA to measure and report near real time surface currents through cellular and satellite telemetry. Since the initial development in 1995, the buoy systems have evolved to include additional sensors such as ADCP's, CTD's, optical sensors, meteorological sensors, GPS, various means of telemetry and most recently, seafloor mounted sensors. In early 2003, GERG began to explore the means by which the TABS network could accommodate additional sensors to expand and enhance the data capability and data value to the end users, increase reliability, provide a faster turn around time during routine servicing and provide modularity in terms of both hardware and software. Because the TABS buoys are a spar design with limited power and space, choice of the right controller was critical. The TABS controller hardware was upgraded from a Motorola 68332 processor based system, to a more powerful PC 104 computer system operating at 100 MHz, with 12 serial ports, 16 analog ports, 24 digital I/O's, 2 USB ports and fast Ethernet. The computer and peripherals operate at approximately 3 watts on a 12 volt supply making it suitable for long term deployments with a solar charging system. The CPU runs on a Linux operating system with high level software written Perl and modular sensor support written in C. The new buoys offer much greater flexibility in terms of the type and quantity of sensors the buoy can support, overall processing speed and capability, internal diagnostic capability, as well as the ability to safely handle remote software upgrades without danger of catastrophic failure if the upgrade is corrupted through telemetry. In February 2005 the first of the new generation buoys was deployed off of San Louis Pass located south west of Galveston, Texas. During this deployment new systems and sensors were tested including the ability of a TABS buoy to acoustically collect processed wave data from a bottom mounted wave gauge ADCP. The recent addition of wave capability to the TABS network enhances the data currently available to the end users of the TABS observing network.