Bunyip-dissipation down under

Because ocean turbulence is intermittent and patchy, the traditional free-fall turbulence systems often cannot collect sufficient data to give representative estimates of the average fluxes of heat and salt in the ocean. The development of Bunyip arose from the need to have a stable vehicle from which to measure oceanic microstructure. The specifications required a towed, undulating vehicle with very low vibration levels, an operating depth to 800 metres, towing speed of 8 knots, capable of transmitting data from various microscale, finescale and status sensors. The paper describes the Bunyip system and its operation