The UAF glider team deploys in the Gulf of Alaska. Photo by Hank Statscewich.
The University of Alaska’s glider team recently reached a major milestone with its “Glide 365” program: keeping an autonomous underwater vehicle continuously deployed for one year on the outer Gulf of Alaska continental shelf.
Over the course of the project, six gliders were rotated to maintain an uninterrupted presence, ultimately staying out for 441 consecutive days. During that time, the gliders profiled from the ocean surface to the seafloor, collecting oceanographic data that are providing a first-ever high resolution picture of the Gulf’s seasonal evolution.
To accomplish this, the underwater drones “swam” from their home port in Seward, Alaska, to a site 70 miles offshore. Here, the gliders completed hourly dives from the surface to the bottom and back, gathering data on seawater density, temperature, salinity, phytoplankton, oxygen, and light.
Through the year, the gliders endured harsh conditions—30-foot seas during intense winter storms, powerful tidal currents, passing ships, and even curious seabirds. Data were presented at NOAA’s Preview of Ecosystem and Economics Conditions workshop in early May.
Looking ahead, the next deployment is scheduled for mid-June, when the glider Gretel will survey the Seward Line in support of a coincident study on board R/V Sikuliaq. Later in June, a second glider, Turbo, will collect turbulence data across ocean fronts identified by Gretel. In July, Loki, a specialized “whale glider” equipped with passive acoustic sensors to detect marine mammal vocalizations, will travel from the Bering Strait to Utqiaġvik. Then in August, glider #1141 (name pending) will launch from St. Paul Island to survey the Bering Sea’s cold pool.
UAF’s growing fleet of underwater gliders is supported through collaboration with federal and state agencies, including the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS). The gliders transmit data to UAF every three hours, and the data are publicly available on the AOOS Ocean Data Explorer website.
Learn more about gliders on the AOOS website
View data from recent glider missions on the AOOS data portal