Collecting subsurface ocean data has traditionally been a complex and costly process. To access insights below the surface, engineers and scientists have typically relied on large, expensive sensors that require special equipment to deploy and frequently serve only as loggers, with no real time data transmission – such as ADCPs, water quality loggers, and underwater passive acoustic recorders. This data gap, which limits real-time decision making and risks worker safety, has hindered the maritime industry’s ability to understand what’s happening in our oceans.
In this talk, we’ll introduce Sofar Ocean’s game-changing marine sensing devices, which are closing the ocean data gap by reducing complexity and increasing real-time data availability. Sofar’s Spotter buoy provides ocean surface data and communications link, while the Smart Mooring, a subsurface extension, attaches modular subsurface sensors. The Spotter Platform is uniquely affordable, rapidly deployable, and extremely durable. Once in the water, the Smart Mooring transmits real-time data via cellular (nearshore) and satellite (open ocean) — sending subsurface temperature, current velocity, and water level data directly to a user-friendly dashboard. Furthermore, the Smart Mooring’s modular design allows for a variety of sensor configurations and placements at any depth up to 50 meters.
The modular nature of the platform also offers opportunities for custom sensor integration. Sofar developed the Bristlemouth open hardware interface, a full stack marine connectivity standard. A “USB for the sea,” Bristlemouth enables “plug and play” capability of a wide variety of sensors with any Bristlemouth-enabled platform, such as Spotter and Smart Mooring. By solving the standardization challenge, Bristlemouth pushes the boundaries of what is achievable in the ocean using marine sensing devices. Bristlemouth partners are building integrations for dissolved oxygen sensors, water quality sondes, hydrophones, and more.
The Smart Mooring platform has already given hundreds of blue economy stakeholders — including marine engineers, offshore energy professionals, and ocean researchers — access to real-time subsurface ocean data at scale for the first time.
