Methods and apparatus for adaptive oceanographic sampling

Abstract

An adaptive oceanographic sampling system includes several stationary acoustic tomography units distributed in an ocean volume, a processing and control system and at least one underwater vehicle movable within the ocean volume. Each of the acoustic tomography units includes an acoustic source for transmitting acoustic energy in the ocean volume, a receiver array for generating acoustic tomography data in response to received acoustic energy and a transmitter for transmitting the acoustic tomography data. The acoustic tomography data represents an ocean characteristic in the ocean volume. The processing and control system analyzes the acoustic tomography data and determines a region of interest within the ocean volume. The processing and control system then directs the underwater vehicle to move to the region of interest. The underwater vehicle includes a sensor for sensing an ocean parameter and providing sensor data representative of the ocean parameter in the region of interest. The underwater vehicle may include an acoustic source for transmitting acoustic energy to the receiver array of at least one of the acoustic tomography units.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.