E1 Scientific Buoy

As part of the NERC Oceans 2025 programme in 2007, PML were awarded a capital grant to build autonomous buoys for the long-term stations at L4 and E1. Originally both L4 and E1 were populated by the same design buoy constructed by Hippo Marine with systems design and integration carried out by PML. However, during 2012 the opportunity arose to collaborate with the UK Met Office who were rolling out a new hull design to replace their 30-year-old K-series. More recently (2021) working in partnership with the Met Office the E1 buoy has been upgraded to a larger 4 m platform, which was provided by Mobilis through their UK supplier Hydrosphere. The float is the same design as the new L4 buoy but the tower on the E1 buoy is slightly smaller in diameter.

Power:

800 Watts of solar charge into an 800 Ah battery bank.

Communications:

Steatite Wave Relay meshed network, which provides high bandwidth connectivity between PML and the buoy.

In Water Measurements:

Sea surface temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, turbidity and CDOM. Also, spectral waves.

Atmospheric Measurements:

Met Office weather sensor measuring air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, sunlight intensity