Marine acquisition using autonomous marine vehicles: A field experiment

Abstract

Summary In the summer of 2013, a field test was conducted in the Gulf of Mexico to acquire seismic data during an ocean-bottom node (OBN) survey using unmanned water vehicles, or wave gliders, towing a miniature streamer. The wave gliders use wave energy to move in the water and could be programmed to follow a certain path or to hold station. Potential geophysical applications of the waveglider platform marine acquisition are attractive, provided issues related to operational implementation and costs can be resolved satisfactorily. We present the results of this test and compare the seismic data acquired with the wave gliders and OBN.