Ocean gliders are becoming one of the Navy’s main tools for collecting data on the internal structure of the ocean for assimilation into ocean models. A glider is a long-endurance autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) used to collect ocean data; it surfaces periodically to transmit data via satellite. Gliders are capable of collecting numerous types of data, including currents, temperature, salinity, pressure, and optics.
I wonder how long these would run for if the world were to suddenly end. I imagine them surfacing every few weeks and transmitting vainly to satellites that’ve fallen out of the sky; sitting on the surface and basking in the sun for a while, perhaps, to recharge their solar cells. Like brittle yellow turtles.
They wouldn’t know that everything had died - taken by some disease or disaster. They’d wander around the now-quiet oceans, taking their measure of the world, until, one by one, they’d succumb to salinity or erosion and suddenly stop, mid-journey, before sinking quiet and still to the ocean floor.
