Introduction to Seagliders

Fred Bingham
Fred Bingham
Professor
University of North Carolina

Dr. Bingham received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in Oceanography. His research interests include global distributions of sea surface salinity and large scale regional physical oceanography in the Kuroshio, the western North and Equatorial Pacific, and Onslow Bay, North Carolina.

Webinar Clip
There are surface drifters and wave gliders, so what constitutes a seaglider? Dr. Bingham tells us in this clip, and shares how these drifters helped researchers to better understand the SPURS region. Dr. Bingham participated in a research cruise as part of a larger project known as SPURS (Salinity Process in the Upper Ocean Regional Study) and was able to deploy a number of these gliders into the Atlantic Ocean.

Full webinar: Follow that Salt! Results and the Future of Salinity Exploration

Click here for a transcript of this clip (PDF, 32.7 KB).

Resources
Applicable Science Standards
  • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. Scientists and engineers plan and carry out investigations in the field or laboratory, working collaboratively as well as individually. Their investigations are systematic and require clarifying what counts as data and identifying variables or parameters.
  • Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking. In both science and engineering, mathematics and computation are fundamental tools for representing physical variables and their relationships. They are used for a range of tasks such as constructing simulations; solving equations exactly or approximately; and recognizing, expressing, and applying quantitative relationships.