University of California to deploy WatchKeeper Buoy
AXYS Technologies has recently won a contract for the sale of a WatchKeeper data collection buoy to the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis (USA). The buoy is planned for deployment on Cordell Bank, west of San Francisco in 85 metres of water. Data from the WatchKeeper will help Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, University of California researchers and the local community enhance their understanding of this productive marine environment.
The WatchKeeper buoy will be equipped with a variety of sensors including wind speed and direction, air and water temperature, currents and water quality and conductivity. To collect and send the data to shore once an hour, the WatchKeeper will use the AXYS WatchMan500 Data Acquisition System and Iridium satellite telemetry service. This data collection buoy system is an important development in monitoring the oceanic environment of the west-coast sanctuaries as well as being a critical enhancement of UC Davis coastal ocean observing capability (bml.ucdavis.edu/boon) and associated oceanographic research. With this technology, researchers at UC Davis’s Bodega Marine Laboratory will be able to control and configure the buoy from their office, adapting sampling for both routine and event-based monitoring of the coastal ocean over Cordell Bank and offshore of San Francisco.
