The ATOMS project aims at developing an integrated system for large-scale ocean monitoring, using acoustic tomography. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, an experimental test will be performed to characterize the upwelling filament structure off the Cape Sao Vicente.

Objectives:

1- To study the feasibility of a tomographic acoustic network to monitor the entire Portuguese EEZ. That network will be composed of 4/5 acoustic emitters/receivers located in the Azores, continental Portugal and Goringe bank and/or Madeira island. The modeled network will use archived data of temperature/salinity profiles (from NODC and BODC data bases). The main characteristics of the network will be determined in order to achieve a given performance in terms of temperature and current resolution.
2 – To develop an integrated system for Ocean Acoustic Tomography (OAT) and perform a test at sea.
3 – To develop a preliminary application of the integrated system to monitor a particular area off the Portuguese EEZ. The test target will be the Cape Sao Vicente filament area, which is one of the most developed and recurrent filaments observed and has important implications in the biological and chemical exchanges between the coastal and offshore ocean.