A low-power post-processed DGPS system for oceanographic applications

Designers of instrumentation for animal tracking face similar problems to those involved in developing oceanographic position-fixing equipment. In both fields, a satisfactory compromise must be achieved between the conflicting requirements of a long-deployment lifetime on the one hand, and low size and weight on the other. Indeed, the small size of many tracked animals makes these constraints even more severe. The paper describes the development of a lightweight, battery-operated package which computes and logs accurate and frequent position fixes. Although developed initially for animal-tracking applications; the low power consumption and high accuracy provided by this technique make it equally suitable for many oceanographic applications such as tracking drifting buoys or ice-flows