A Real Time AXBT Data Acquisition and Processing System Using A Personal Computer

At the Naval Research Laboratory Airborne-launched Expendable Bathythermographs (AXBT´s) which are also known as Bathysonobuoy´s are deployed from Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) aircraft in support of Naval oceanographic experiments. A highly portable real-time data acquisition and processing system has been developed on a Hewlett Packard HP150 Personal Computer for use aboard a P3 ASW aircraft to acquire, process, display and produce a hard copy graph of vertical ocean temperature and sound velocity profiles. The use of Personal Computers to acquire and process oceanographic data in real-time has significantly reduced the weight and power requirements aboard the aircraft while increasing the data acquisition system reliability. The hardware costs are very low in comparison with previously used mini-computer systems and a backup system is easily provided. Installation time and problems are minimized with the use of the small portable Personal Computers. This paper describes the design and implementation of the system as well as a detailed description of the software and system operation.