Earlier this month, RUCOOL reached a major milestone: its 800th glider deployment, with maracoos_06 entering the water out of Stony Brook.
When RU30 deployed off Sandy Hook in October 2019 to study ocean pH in the New York Bight, it was our 500th mission after 18 years of operations. Adding 300 more in about seven years shows how far the program has come.
Together, those 800 deployments have flown 439,800 kilometers, enough to circle the Earth more than 11 times, and logged 22,188 glider days at sea. That is more than 61 years of continuous ocean observing, by a fleet that has worked from the Mid Atlantic Bight to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and across the Antarctic. Five gliders are in the water right now.
Those miles of data feed hurricane forecasts, ecosystem and fisheries research, offshore wind planning, and the hands on training of students who will run the next generation of ocean observing systems.
Congratulations to the RUCOOL glider team, our partners, and everyone who has built, ballasted, piloted, and recovered a Rutgers glider over the years. When we reached 500, we said we were already looking forward to 1,000. We’re 200 away.
Follow the fleet on our Glider Deployment Pages.
