L4 Data Buoy
The L4 station is approximately 6 nautical miles south of Plymouth in 45m of water. The L4 buoy is equipped with an array of sensors to look at both atmospheric and marine parameters. These include sea surface temperature, salinity, oxygen, turbidity, fluorescence (WetLabs WQM); CDOM fluorescence (WetLabs); nitrate (Satlantic ISUS); pH (Satlantic SeaFET) and a hyperspectral radiometer (Satlantic). A met station is provided by the Met Office. This platform has been designed to easily integrate third party sensors, either for scientific campaigns or for the development of new marine technologies. Plymouth Marine Laboratory has a proven track record of hosting a diverse range of prototype technologies on this platform and regularly trials and validates new sensor technologies from the National Oceanography Centre.
Through the Marine Business Technology Centre (MBTC) this buoy platform will shortly be replaced with a larger buoy with high speed communications, plug and play capability for third party sensors and prototype technologies. A significant enhancement will be the addition of an autonomous water column profiling capability, a first of its kind in UK waters.
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