A glider (Slocum) animation in the ocean. These autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) sample the ocean for researchers, the gliders can fly by changing their buoyancy. This makes them sink or rise in the water column. By using their fins and internal weight displacement they use the up or downward motion to glide forward through the ocean. This is a Slocum model (Webb), other models are the Seaglider (UW) or Spray (Scripps). The IFM-GEOMAR uses a swarm of these gliders near the coast of Africa or Rutgers University tried to cross the Atlantic with one of these, but had to intervene half way.
Copyright Sunke Schmidtko and IFM-GEOMAR
