Autonomous profiling glider observations in Storm Bay

Glider data collected along a sawtooth section crossing Storm Bay in south east Tasmania, show high spatial and temporal variability in temperature, salinity, fluorescence and dissolved oxygen . A Slocum glider was used to repeat 6 transects from the mouth of the Derwent Estuary to the continental shelf in autumn 2009. The instrument was deployed for 25 days, travelled 974 km and dived to within 10 m of the bottom (50-160m) providing high resolution (5 second sampling interval) profiles of water properties. Data were quality controlled by comparison with calibrated CTD casts and bottle samples at the beginning and end of the deployment. This very high resolution dataset is the first of its kind for the region and provides a unique insight into the autumnal water column dynamics of Storm Bay.