WASHINGTON — Far out in the Atlantic, a little yellow submarine is trying to slip from current to current, gliding across the ocean beneath the waves.
The unmanned sub is nearing the halfway mark in its effort to travel from New Jersey to Spain, collecting scientific data along the way.
It isn’t a first trip for the device, but it will be the longest, an effort to show that an undersea glider can take its place in a global ocean observing system.
“The big advantage is, it’s totally unmanned,” said Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a sponsor of the sub developed and operated by Rutgers University in New Jersey. “It’s very efficient and can be used to obtain the same kind of data we gather from ships.”
“It can be done totally remotely,” Lautenbacher added. “It can be controlled from a rec room in Ohio, if necessary.”
Like a glider airplane, the sub doesn’t have a motor to drive it. Dubbed “Scarlet Knight” after the school mascot — never mind its color — the sub uses wings to fly through the water as it dives and rises, seeking currents that will carry it where the researchers want it to go, said Scott Glenn, a professor in marine sciences at Rutgers.
On this trip, the glider is focusing on the temperature and salinity of the ocean, Glenn said in a telephone interview, but all sorts of sensors can be attached to make various scientific measurements.
Making it to Spain means covering more than 3,800 miles, for a glider that is less than 8 feet long and weighs about 130 pounds. Its longest previous trip was 1,616 miles to Halifax, Canada, last year.
