Technology, Design, and Operation of an Autonomous Buoy System in the Western English Channel

A buoy system has been developed to continually monitor the operationally demanding coastal and open-shelf environment of the western English Channel. The buoys measure a range of physical and bio-geochemical parameters on an hourly basis at two established long-term monitoring sites and the data are relayed to shore in near real time using radio communications. This paper describes the technological challenges faced in such long-term marine deployments including the mooring design, warning systems, command and control, and radio communications, and how each were overcome. The fine temporal frequency data are used within an operational oceanography context, will underpin the long-term sustained observations in the western English Channel, and will form the basis of improvements to finescale ecosystem modeling to better predict any changes in the U.K. shelf seas.