IoT satellite technology for oceanography research
Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar Inc. has announced that scientists from the NATO’s Science and Technology Organisation are deploying an IoT solution using SPOT Trace and Globalstar satellite communications to further their understanding of the world’s oceans.
Research teams from the NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), based in La Spezia, Italy, are embedding low-cost SPOT Trace devices in freely drifting buoys and setting them afloat in the Mediterranean and in Arctic waters to monitor surface drift behaviour. SPOT Trace tracks the movement of these ‘drifters’ and transmits their position data over Globalstar’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network.
The research examines horizontal motion in the sea and how surface properties are transported deeper into the water column. This will lead to a greater understanding of changes in maritime characterisations such as temperature change, acoustic propagation, and the movement of biogeochemical properties (e.g. phytoplankton) and pollutants such as plastic.
Buoys are fitted with a tiny (7×5 cm) SPOT Trace device which includes an integrated GPS receiver, simplex transponder and motion sensor. Thanks to Globalstar’s fast-moving LEO spacecraft and SPOT Trace’s long battery life, research teams benefit from high frequency sampling, up to every five minutes, and more precise, granular tracking than has been possible with other solutions.
Thousands of SPOT Trace units are used for oceanography studies around the globe. These include the University of Oldenburg’s work monitoring plastic debris in the North Sea and Spain’s coastal authority, Salvamento Maritimo, using SPOT Trace to devise oil spill disaster recovery procedures.
By Jake Frith
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