A Low Power Datalogger based on Compactflash memory for Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS)

In the last decade marine scientific exploration instruments are highly under demand, especially autonomous instruments capable of staying under water long period of time while performing continuous data acquisition and storage. This paper introduces an instrument presently under development used for the study of ocean bottom sub-layers as well as microseismic detection where power consumption has been minimized to increase autonomy and Compactflash memory cards have been used as the storage element. Development of such equipment is a joint work between different disciplines as electronics, mechanics, geophysics, underwater communications, etc. Currently acquisition system is under test in the laboratory and is going to be tested in real environmental conditions in summer 2005 where the results will be evaluated