Forget hurricane season… for us, it’s been hurricane glider season as we’ve been tracking gliders operating in the Gulf of Mexico and along the southeast Atlantic Coast from a number of groups — including the U.S. Navy, University of South Florida, University of Southern Mississippi, Texas A&M’s Geochemical and Environmental Research Group and the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography — on our map-based tracker and piloting portal, GANDALF. Glider data helps forecasters gain better insights into ocean temperatures and other parameters critical for modeling weather events like tropical storms and hurricanes.
GANDALF is a unique one-stop-shop where you can see data from all the gliders operating in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and Western Atlantic Ocean. GANDALF recently hit a record of tracking seven vehicles at once. In addition to Slocum gliders, GANDALF has also provided data visualization and tracking for Kongsberg Seagliders, Liquid Robotics Wavegliders and Navocean’s sailing vessel. GANDALF is rapidly becoming a “must-have” tool for researchers using autonomous vehicles.
