Arctic Data Buoy Program

Abstract

The Arctic Data Buoy Program described in this article is designed to provide certain fundamental data from an inaccessible region, using automatic devices rather than costly manned stations. The first effort in that direction was the Soviet Drifting Automatic Radiometeorological Stations (DARMS) programme of the 1950s and 1960s (Olenicoff, 1968). These buoys reflected the then state of technology which involved the use of heavy storage batteries and a method of location by high frequency (HF) radio wave triangulation (Figs 1,2; Table 1). Restrictions of that system—high cost, weight, and limited range and accuracy of HF radio wave triangulation— apparently caused the Soviet Union to terminate the programme. At about the same time satellite navigation and data transmission technology, developed in the United States, created a new generation of data buoys. These buoys can accommodate a wide range of sensors, data compression and pre-processing devices and hull designs, for stationary use on land, as moored or drifting ocean data buoys, or on sea ice; they can be installed on land, in the ocean from ships, or by parachute drops from aircraft.