Image

 ![Coastal research landscape used as the Northmoor University hero image.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2026-01/camilo-botia-k4vFDPJoDZk-unsplash.1600x1200.jpg.avif?itok=ujHvC8nC)

 

 



Course code

OCEA 360

 

Course credit

1.00

 

Covers the instruments and platforms used to observe the ocean: shipboard profiling, moored arrays, drifters, floats, autonomous gliders and remote sensing. Addresses sensor principles, calibration, drift, and the practical problem of recovering data from equipment left unattended in seawater.

Considerable attention is given to failure. Instruments flood, biofoul, run out of power and return plausible-looking data that is wrong. The course treats recognizing bad data as a primary skill rather than a footnote, and works through deployments that failed alongside those that did not.

Students participate in a mooring deployment or recovery aboard R/V *Cascadia Strait* where the schedule permits. Sensor integration work is carried out in the Marine Robotics and Test Basin.



Instructors

[Dr. Samuel Hartley](/person/dr-samuel-hartley)

[Dr. Elena Reyes](/person/dr-elena-reyes)

 

 

Prerequisite

OCEA 110. OCEA 220 recommended.



 

Terms offered

fall

 

 

Offering frequency

annually