Red ACOMAR: Coastal moored buoy network for real-time surveillance, control and observation in Canary Islands

Abstract

Following the trends and general objectives established by GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) through its coastal ecosystems component COOP (Coastal Ocean Observations Panel), the present paper describes the design, first development stages and derived results of a coastal monitoring network, named Red ACOMAR Canarias (Network for Marine Surveillance, Control and Observation in the Canaries). The Red ACOMAR is based in a core project developed for the coastal areas around the Canary Islands archipelago, mainly composed of an anchored buoys surveillance system. Each buoy is integrated by a determined sensor suite (meteorological and oceanographic) and a bi-directional communications system. The buoys are autonomous monitoring systems, able to measure and transmit in real time information concerning environmental variables of interest. The network has a control centre that manages the transmission communications, and provides data in a useful form to diverse socio-economic important sectors which make an exhaustive use of the littoral in the Canary Islands, and need data from the buoys to well manage the coastal environment. The access to the information by the users is done through Internet, using a specific software application. In parallel with the continuous network development and implementation, autonomous systems have been developed to meet particular needs within the monitoring of characteristic physicochemical parameters in the marine environment