An Air-Launched Expendable Conductivity and Temperature Profiler (AXCTP)

An air-launched expendable conductivity and water temperature profiler has been developed which is fitted with a newly-developed small-sized electrostatic pick-up as a conductivity sensor and a disk thermister. The design objectives of this profiler is to develop a light-weighed, small-sized, air-launched profiler which is equipped with medium-precision and quick response, and also which can probe conductivity and water temperature up to a depth of 2,000 meters. The profiling system consists of three major parts. They are a sensor probe, a surface assembly and an airborne data acquisition set. This type of profilers has been tested in the open sea by the aid of a ship and an aircraft since two years ago. This paper presents a brief description of the hardware system, sensors and probe performance and the results of the open sea tests to illustrate the system capability.