FLIGHT STATUS Latest Glider Data

As of: 12/04/09 Days at Sea 221 days Distance 7409.60 km

LATEST NEWS 7 Fun Facts About RU27 RU27 called home over 1000 times during the mission to report her location and send/receive data. RU27 moved her buoyancy pump approximately 22,000 times, which allowed her to� Complete approximately 22,000 inflections, 11,000 dives and 11,000 climbs. The raw data shows that Scarlet traveled vertically approximately 2200 kilometers (almost 1400 miles). Explanation: Glider goes more forward then up and down when it is flying. Almost 16 MB of data was transferred via satellite during the mission. This is likely low for a 220-day deployment but that is due to an energy/efficiency/surface risk habit. Scarlet compared to a car: A gallon of gas has approximately 131,940,000 J of energy; an efficient car can travel 30 miles on that gallon so approximately 4,398,000 J/mile. Scarlet, with currents, did 4598 miles burning 27,898,182 J having an average of about 6,067 J/mile. End result: Scarlet can cover 725 x more distance than a car with the same energy. She is a 21,700-mpg car equivalent (remember though car much bigger and goes faster!). A car could only travel 6.3 miles on the same amount of energy that Scarlet Knight used to cross the Atlantic. Scarlet compared to the Rockefeller Christmas tree: The Christmas tree at Rockefeller plaza used to use approximately 3,510 kilowatt hours / day meaning Scarlet's energy used would last 3 minutes. However, in 2007 they switched to LED diodes meaning that one could now power the tree for about 8.1 minutes or send glider across the Atlantic ocean.

- Tina Haskins (12/12/09)