TRW Antenna

We have in the Gulf an array of moored Current and Pressure Recording Inverted Echo Sounders (CPIES) and Sonardyne Origin-65's, which combine bottom-mounted upward-looking Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) and PIES. The array is located along the probable trajectories that pulses follow of strong deep currents associated with Topographic Rossby Waves (TRWs), enroute to Sigsbee Escarpment, where they pose an unseen hazard to industry operations, not reliably detectable from surface observations. The observations and data from this bottom instrumentation can be harvested by Uncrewed Surface Vessels, at times adaptively chosen to produce useful warnings that a burst of strong currents will arrive along Sigsbee Escarpment. This week (late March, 2025) during a data harvest we learned that the battery of one Origin-65 is nearly dead, and consequently we need to go out to replace and hopefully recover that instrument.