E2-M3A Southern Adriatic Observatory

The E2-M3A system is characterized by a surface buoy (A) and a single mooring line (B). The buoy hull of welded steel construction has a discus shape, which provides three main compartments, provision for installation of sensors, ballast compartments and provision for the attachment of the superstructure. The surface buoy in a separated mooring line communicates with the instrument mooring through hydro-acoustic modems that allows the real data transfer from the platform to the land station. The three types of measurements that are processed by the E2-M3A station are:

Air-sea interface measurements which includes a meteorological station and solar radiation sensor;
Biochemical and physical properties (pH_T and pCO2) of the subsurface layer through probes attached at 2m depth and transmitted to the surface buoy through an inductive cable;
Biochemical and physical properties (Temperature, Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen, horizontal and vertical currents, transmissometer) of the seawater in the layer 100m-bottom through probes attached on a deep mooring line (connected by acoustic links to the surface buoy).