A Low-Power Datalogger Based on CompactFlash Memory for Ocean Bottom Seismometers

In the last decade, marine scientific instruments have been in high demand, particularly autonomous instruments that are capable of staying under water for a long time while performing continuous data acquisition and storage. This paper introduces an instrument under development that is used for the study of ocean bottom sublayers and microseismic detection. The power consumption of the equipment has been minimized to increase autonomy, and Compact Flash memory cards have been used as the storage element. Development of such equipment is a joint effort between different disciplines, such as electronics, mechanics, geophysics, underwater communications, etc. The acquisition system was tested both in the laboratory and under real environmental conditions in the summer of 2005, and the results have been evaluated.