Automatic Environmental Data Buoys

Abstract

The United States has been developing various methods to obtain synoptic measurements of the marine environment. The various platforms include ships, aircraft, satellites, balloons, manned and unmanned fixed stations and buoys. The North Pacific and the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of these systems to measure various parameters of the marine environment and to telemeter the data automatically to a central collection station. The principal data buoys developed in the United States are described and the plans and progress of the National Data Buoy Development Project are presented.