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Ocean and environmental observation systems

Track Where Water Moves—and What It Carries

Pacific Gyre integrates field-proven instruments, satellite telemetry, and cloud data services for circulation, transport, dispersion, and environmental monitoring.

  • Track currents, plumes, spills, larvae, floating materials, and ice
  • Validate ocean models, HF radar, and SAR predictions
  • Measure temperature, salinity, pressure, and other parameters through the water column

Trusted by national agencies, research universities, and international observing programs.

CARTHE ocean drifter deployed from a research vessel

Start with the study objective

Applications for moving water and changing conditions

Explore practical ways to configure drifters, trackers, sensors, telemetry, and data services around the process you need to observe.

Circulation Studies

Observe current pathways, residence, exchange, and connectivity in coastal or open-ocean systems.

Explore circulation studies

Larval Transport

Measure dispersal pathways and connectivity relevant to recruitment, restoration, and ecosystem management.

Explore larval transport

Dispersion Studies

Quantify spreading, separation, retention, and uncertainty with coordinated Lagrangian arrays.

Explore dispersion studies

Oil Spill Tracking

Add direct surface-transport observations to preparedness exercises, response operations, and model evaluation.

Explore oil spill tracking

Harmful Algal Bloom Studies

Relate bloom observations to transport pathways, environmental conditions, exposure, and model predictions.

Explore HAB studies

Marine Meteorology

Collect atmospheric and surface-ocean observations from remote locations and moving platforms.

Explore marine meteorology

Integrated platform families

Move from question to field-ready system

Choose the observation platform, sensor package, reporting plan, and data workflow that fit the operating environment.

Lagrangian Drifters

Follow water parcels at a defined depth.

Satellite Trackers

Add location and telemetry to assets, ice, and floating objects.

Sensor Chains

Profile conditions through the water column.

Data Services

Monitor, manage, download, and integrate observations.

Lagrangian drifters

Observe currents at the depth that matters

Select platform exposure and drogue depth to represent the transport process, study scale, and deployment environment.

CARTHE surface drifter ready for deployment

Currents centered near 40 cm

CARTHE

Designed for coordinated arrays that measure surface transport and dispersion.

View CARTHE
Microstar drifter floating with its drogue below the surface

Drogue centered near 1 meter

Microstar

A compact, drogued platform for shallow coastal currents and constrained deployments.

View Microstar
Reef near-surface drifter operating in the ocean

Near-surface flow around 20 cm

Reef

A tetherless option for shallow water and locations where a conventional drogue could snag.

View Reef
SVP drifter being recovered from open water

Configurable from 5 to 50 meters

SVP

The open-ocean standard for mixed-layer currents, with configurable depths and sensor payloads.

View SVP options

Satellite trackers

Track remote assets, ice, and floating objects

Combine GNSS positions, optional sensors, and satellite communication in application-specific housings.

GloBeacon satellite tracker mounted on an ocean mooring

GloBeacon

Add tracking, satellite telemetry, and sensor integration to a boat, buoy, or remote asset.

View GloBeacon
Ice Tracker deployed on a sea-ice surface

Ice Tracker

Observe ice motion and environmental conditions with a rugged, air-deployable platform.

View Ice Tracker
Universal satellite tracker floating at the water surface

Universal Tracker

A configurable smart float for locating drifting objects and collecting optional sensor observations.

View Universal Tracker

Sensor chains

Profile environmental conditions through the water column

Build a durable, application-specific vertical array for long-term observations in the open ocean, coastal waters, or beneath ice.

Oceanographic sensors installed along a sensor-chain tether

Configurable sensors

Integrate temperature, salinity, pressure, optical, camera, and other compatible measurements.

Long ocean sensor chain prepared for deployment

Lengths to 200 meters

Sample vertical structure across the water column in open-ocean and under-ice programs.

Research team handling an inductive ocean sensor chain

Inductive communication

Communicate over the tether strength member and avoid fragile small-gauge signal wires.

Cloud data services

Turn field observations into accessible data

Monitor platform health, review tracks and measurements, adjust supported settings, and bring observations into your own workflows.

Pacific Gyre cloud dashboard showing platform status

Dashboard and map

See platform status, latest positions, trajectories, and fleet context.

Time-series chart of ocean platform sensor data

Chart and download

Review measurements and export observations for analysis and reporting.

Remote platform command interface in Pacific Gyre data services

Command and provision

Manage supported sampling, reporting, and telemetry settings remotely.

Application programming interface documentation for ocean data access

API integration

Connect observations to models, GIS, dashboards, and automated systems.

Why Pacific Gyre

One team across platform, telemetry, and data

Reduce integration risk with systems designed around the full observation workflow—from deployment through data access.

Lagrangian expertise since 1994

Decades of experience with real-world ocean deployments and transport studies.

Integrated systems

Platforms, sensors, telemetry, power, and cloud services engineered to work together.

Supported in Oceanside

Systems designed, built, integrated, and supported in Oceanside, California.

Configurable programs

Match platform, sensors, reporting interval, duration, and data delivery to the study.

Tell us what you need to measure

Share the study objective, operating environment, target depth, expected duration, and data needs. We will help identify a practical platform and configuration.