With funds provided by Royal Caribbean Group (RCG), we began to develop autonomous remotely controllable measurement systems. These next-generation data acquisition systems run for many months at a time without physical operator interaction delivering data automatically to both the shore side scientific community (and where relevant) to ship operators concerned with attaining maximal fuel economy. This next-generation system we called AMOS (Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System) is now operational on three RCG vessels (the RCG Allure of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas and the Celebrity's Equinox). In summer 2019 we expect that newly installed instruments on Celebrity's Flora in the Galapagos will become operational.
Since 2015 additional instrumentation onboard, the M-AERI measuring satellite comparable sea surface temperatures, a pCO2 system for ocean carbon dioxide measurements and ADCP’s measuring ocean currents have received next generation upgrades. The pilot systems aboard the Explorer of the Seas were renewed and upgraded for installation upon Adventure of the Seas when Explorer of the Seas was refurbished and relocated to the Far East in 2016.
This transformation, and the growing recognition of the data obtainable from commercial vessels in regular transit is invaluable, and has generated an international response, known as OceanScope. The OceanScope program is envisioned as a fleet of commercial vessels with automated instrumentation spanning the global ocean and serving as “satellites of the sea.” The report of the international group proposing OceanScope is located where. OceanScope is very much the “legacy” of the UM-RCG collaboration and with its implementation, the UM-RCG collaboration is expected to continue to serve as technology test-beds over the coming years.
