A simple system for recording time series of data from a mobile platform as a function of its position

Abstract

By installing recording instruments on board, Inst. of Marine Research has since 1935 collected temperature and salinity data from waters being trafficed by passenger ships from Bergen to Kirkenes and and from cargo ships travelling the North Sea between Bergen and Newcastle. The methods used to acquire data have changed with the available technology, and several technical updates have been made since the start of this service. Until recently a good way to continuously record the ship's position has been missing. The introduction of the satellite based Global Positioning Service (GPS) has solved this problem. Via GPS the position of most moving platforms can now be recorded in a simple way. This paper describes a general GPS- based system for recording of data from the sea surface as a function of time and position which has been applied to the Bergen- Kirkenes coastal express. The system can acquire GPS-position and environmental directly or by merging GPS - time information from one recorder with environmental data /time information from other recorders.