Real-time Modelling of Tidal Current for Navigating Underwater Glider Sensing Networks

摘要

Ocean models that are able to provide accurate and real-time prediction of tidal current will improve the performance of glider navigation. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to compute a model for tidal current at higher resolution than existing approaches. By focusing on a small area and incorporating measurements from multiple gliders, we are able to perform real-time computation of the model, which is desired by operations of underwater gliders in the ocean. Our model uses a lower resolution, larger scale model to initialize the computation. We have also demonstrated incorporating data streams from other observation systems such as WavE RAdar (WERA) system. Glider navigation performance using the proposed tidal model is demonstrated in a simulated tidal field based on data collected off the coast of Georgia.