SmartBuoy

Home Economy and Tourism Oceans Holyrood Initiative SmartBuoy

Marine Institute’s Centre for Applied Ocean Technology (CTEC) maintains a meteorological/oceanographic buoy located in Holyrood harbour, adjacent to the Marine Institute’s Holyrood Marine Base.

Launched in 2009, the Holyrood SmartBouy serves two primary functions:

Collects real time weather and ocean conditions from Holyrood Arm and
Serves as a test platform for new and innovative ocean sensors in support of the School of Ocean Technology’s Ocean Instrumentation program.

As part of MI’s growing network of SmartBays, the Holyrood SmartBuoy is available to industry and academia for testing and performance monitoring ocean sensors in a real ocean environment. The buoy is located only a few hundred meters from shore and can easily be attended year round from the Holyrood Marine Base by small craft.

Additionally, research staff has direct access to monitor and control the instruments deployed on the buoy via wireless link connected to the Marine Institute network.

The Holyrood SmartBuoy is equipped with an Axys Technologies Watchman 500, a powerful controller that is the heart of operational meteorological and oceanographic buoys deployed around the world.

This capability enables SmartBuoy users to participate in international Ocean Science Interoperability Experiments. Near real time oceanographic and meteorological data collected by onboard instruments are accessible via the SmartBay web portal.