The Smart Elevator technology already operating in the Black Sea can be easily transferred to the Arctic to meet the challenges of operational oceanography, the Head of the Experimental Ocean Physics Laboratory of the Shirshov Oceanology Institute, Andrei Zatsepin said at a meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Smart Elevator, aka Aqualog developed at this Institute has been continuously used in the Black Sea for five years. This station is a system of measuring sensors, which move along the rope stretched between the buoy and the bottom anchor, while scanning the water at the depth of up to one kilometer. The information about the characteristics of the sea water is transmitted from the processor to the buoy, which in turn sends it to researchers' mobile phones.
Thermobraids
In an interview with reporters Mr. Zatsepin clarified that satellite communication is required in the open sea of the Arctic to transfer the information obtained by the Smart Elevator. Since mobile communiction is suitable  for the coast only, satellite transmitters are needed.
The surface buoys that drift freely and are able to transmit information to the satellite are developed by scientists o the Marine Hydrophysical Institute RAS, in cooperation with the Marlin-South company.
It is about drifting buoys and the so-called thermobraids,  i.e. systems of sensors connected together into a cable garland. The thermobraids are intended for under-ice observations, among other tasks. Sensors can be built directly into an ice floe and combined with a Smart Elevator - for example one Aqualog for 10 thermobraids.
According to the scientists of the RAS, both Smart Elevators and thermobraids have already been successfully sold abroad. Thus, the Aqualog sets "with all the intellectual stuffing" have been provided for Spain, France, Italy, South Korea, and Cyprus since 2009. In Spain, the Smart Elevator from Russia scans sea water at the depth of up to 800 meters. Thermobraids are in great demand in the United States.
Russian electrical conductivity and temperature sensors, which are the basis of all the probes are also developed now. They are expected to appear in two years, Andrei Zatsepin said.