Device for measuring in real time sea currents in deep water

摘要

A device for measuring in real time sea currents in deep water possibly exceeding 6000 m, as a function of the depth. A spherical shaped plunger having negative floatability is dropped from a boat and descends to the bottom of the sea, releases its ballast and rises again to the surface where it is recovered. Acoustic responding buoys positioned geographically as well as the contrivance receive pulses transmitted by the boat and respond to the boat. Furthermore, the contrivance also sends out a response intended for the buoys which reply to the boat; from the arrival times of these pulses, a computer on board the boat calculates the sequential positions of the contrivance in relation to the buoys as well as the velocities of the currents as a function of the depth.