OceanGliders: the underwater glider component of the integrated Global Ocean Observing System

Autonomous underwater gliders delivering near-real-time, four-dimensional views of the ocean to science and society.

What is OceanGliders?

The ocean's most productive and societally important regions, including coastal boundaries, polar seas, and open ocean fronts and eddies, are shaped by fine-scale dynamics whose sustained, subsurface observation remains one of the central challenges in ocean observing.

As a component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), OceanGliders envisions a future in which gliders, uniquely capable of sustained and targeted sampling across these diverse environments, systematically deliver the observations needed to fill these observing gaps. In this future, glider observations routinely inform climate projections, ecosystem management, and societal responses to ocean variability and change, as part of a more complete and connected global ocean observing system that builds a clearer picture of the ocean's role in climate, ecosystems, and society.

OceanGliders Objectives

OceanGliders coordinates sustained glider observations within GOOS, delivering high-resolution, four-dimensional data for operational and scientific applications. OceanGliders works toward a future in which:

Ocean variability and change are better understood across a range of spatial and temporal scales;
Glider observations inform ocean, weather, climate, and ecosystem prediction and societal decision-making;
Sustained observing coverage exists in coastal, polar, and other dynamically significant environments;
Glider data are open, interoperable, and of consistently high quality;
Glider observations are cross-disciplinary, simultaneously capturing physical, biogeochemical, and ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables across all missions
A globally inclusive glider community exists, built on international collaboration, innovation, and shared best practices; and
Glider observations are integrated with complementary observing systems, strengthening the GOOS.

BOON

Boundary Ocean Observing Network

Observes coastal to shelf–slope regions; resolves boundary processes and human-relevant variability; bridges shore-based and open-ocean observations.

FLOOD

Fine-scale and Lateral Observations of Open Ocean Dynamics

Observes the open/interior ocean; resolves multiscale dynamics (e.g., fronts, eddies, water-mass transformation); links local processes to basin-scale circulation and climate.

POLAR

Polar

Observes ice-covered regions; enables under-ice observations; resolves ocean–ice interactions and basal melting, reducing key climate uncertainties.

Why Observations Are Collected

Science Themes

While missions organise observations around operational environments, Science Themes represent cross-disciplinary focus areas that can potentially cut across all three missions, connecting observations to scientific purpose and societal applications. Each theme can be taken on by a Task Team where community champions exist to lead focused activities:

Climate

Carbon Cycle and Biogeochemistry

Circulation

Ocean Health and Ecosystems

Events and Hazards

Prediction

OceanGliders Community

OceanGliders is built on open collaboration. Code, documentation, data formats, and best practices are openly developed and maintained by the community on GitHub.

OceanGlidersCommunity on GitHub

What are gliders ?

Platform and Capabilities

Underwater gliders are small, buoyancy-driven autonomous platforms that profile the water column over deployments lasting weeks to months, measuring physical, biogeochemical, and acoustic Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs). Unlike propeller-driven vehicles, gliders use controlled changes in buoyancy for vertical motion, converting that into forward propulsion through fixed wings. This makes them highly energy-efficient, enabling deployments of weeks to months over ranges of hundreds to thousands of kilometres. Gliders surface periodically to transmit data and receive instructions via satellite, enabling real-time data delivery and adaptive mission control from shore. Their low operational cost relative to research vessels enables sustained, repeated deployments that would be impractical by ship alone. The OceanGliders community operates a variety of commercial and non-commercial models of underwater gliders with varying capabilities and sensor payloads.

Gliders provide observing capabilities that complement those of other GOOS platforms:

Long endurance and mobility:

sustained deployments of weeks to months, covering hundreds to thousands of kilometres

Adaptive sampling:

can be redirected to track fronts, eddies, water masses, and other evolving features

Four-dimensional observations:

resolving fine-scale spatial and temporal variability not captured by fixed or freely-drifting platforms

Ability to operate in challenging environments:

under ice, shallow continental shelves, fjords, boundary currents, and marginal seas

Resolving variability across scales:

observations spanning horizontal scales of kilometres to thousands of kilometres, vertical scales of centimeters to kilometres, and sub-daily to interannual variability

Cross-discipline measurements:

physical, biogeochemical, and acoustic observations in a single deployment, with low hydrodynamic noise making gliders particularly well-suited to passive acoustic monitoring

Near-real-time data delivery:

data transmitted via satellite at each surfacing, enabling adaptive mission control

Get Involved

Whether you operate gliders, analyse ocean data, or are looking to join the OceanGliders community, we'd love to hear from you.