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Autonomous Identification and Tracking of Thermoclines with a Vertical Profiler using Extremum Seeking Control

The thermocline is a relatively narrow vertical region that separates the mixed layer at the surface from the deep-water layer. In this region, the gradient of temperature with respect to depth is higher than in the rest of the water column. The characteristics of the thermocline have strong impact in marine biology, since it may trap high-nutrient organisms, and it also affects sound propagation, with direct impact on underwater acoustic communications and military operations. Under adaptive sampling, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles are practical tools for efficient ocean observation. In this work, we describe an implementation of an Extremum Seeking Controller that performs identification and tracking of thermoclines at its point of highest temperature gradient in a completely autonomous way. The vehicle chosen to perform this tracking was an autonomous vertical profiler, and the algorithms were validated using both real and simulated data.