In September 2004, the Physical Oceanography Group of the Uni- versity of Málaga deployed a mooring line in the westernmost sill of the Strait of Gibraltar, with the objective of monitoring the wa- ter column velocity and the thermohaline properties of the Med- iterranean waters flowing through the strait towards the Atlantic Ocean. The mooring, which has been providing two decades of data of inestimable value for the oceanographic community, is a ∼20 m subsurface line housing two current profilers and a con- ductivity/temperature sensor. Due to the strong currents flowing in the region, the line periodically undergoes severe tilt and con- tinuous vibration, which may be partially affecting the reliability of the velocity measurements. A completely new custom-designed structure is proposed here, as a replacement for the subsurface mooring scheme, based on a lander fixed design. The PLOSEG (Plataforma de Observación del Estrecho de Gibraltar) is currently at the last stage of its construction process and is scheduled for deployment in the first half of 2025.

Peer Reviewed