PNNL

Abstract

Monitoring seawater temperature is important to understanding evolving ocean processes. To monitor internal waves or ocean mixing, a large number of temperature loggers are typically mounted on subsurface mooring systems to obtain high-resolution temperature data at different water depths. In this study, we redesigned and evaluated a compact, low-cost, self-contained, high-resolution and high-accuracy ocean temperature logger, TC-1121. The newly designed TC-1121 loggers are smaller, more robust, and their sampling intervals can be automatically changed by indicated events. They have been widely used in many mooring systems to study internal wave and ocean mixing. The logger’s fundamental design, noise analysis, calibration, drift test, and a long-term sea trial are discussed in this paper.