Teledyne Gliders Tracking Oil Spill

Underwater gliders developed by a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Inc. are being used in the Gulf of Mexico to track the spread of oil from the leaking well leased by British Petroleum. The four Slocum gliders, made by Teledyne Webb Research, are operating off the west coast of Florida and sending data back to government scientists to be used to develop models that are predicting the position and movement of the oil spill plume. The gliders are owned by Rutgers University and the University of South Florida and operate at depths between 30 and 200 meters. Each glider is equipped with a conductivity-temperature-depth sensor, for measuring temperature and salinity, and an optical instrument for measuring concentrations of colored dissolved organic matter, light scattering and chlorophyll-a. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform on April 20 resulted in the leak at a depth of almost a mile below the gulf’s surface. Mark R. Madler