The growth in towed undulating vehicles for oceanographic data gathering

Traditionally oceanographic data sets were obtained by stopping the ship and lowering instrumentation and sampling equipment on a wire. Whilst this is arguably necessary for deep ocean casts advances in towed oceanographic vehicles have given scientists a new technique for rapid area synoptic surveys in the upper ocean. Towed vehicles have been in use since the 1930s but it was not until the late 1970s that undulating vehicles with in situ sensors were developed. Chelsea Instruments have been involved with the design and development of towed oceanographic vehicles since 1982. These include the early Undulating Oceanographic recorder, AquaShuttle, Nv-shuttle and SeaSoar. Earlier this year they were joined by ScanFish to complete a comprehensive survey fleet. Chelsea Instruments have also worked closely with the UK Ministry of Defence to develop a number of novel towed vehicles for specific oceanographic applications. Throughout the last decade the design and performance of vehicle systems have advanced significantly. The modern generation of vehicles has resulted from complex computer models ensuring that performance is well documented and predictable. Sensors have become smaller but the diversity of payloads has increased. Above all modern towed vehicle systems are extremely robust and highly reliable. The development of the next generation of vehicles is already well advanced to meet the needs of future ocean science programmes.