The core of the land based Control/node station is the REBUS - Remote Buoy Management Software which allows the user to carry out remote BUOY PROFILER 601/701 control, diagnostics, configuration and data retrieval operations, in an attended or unattended way.
The Control/Communications node can control a high number of Buoy 601/701 profilers; this makes it possible to organize and manage a geographically dispersed monitoring system from a single Control Station. Furthermore, secondary "Slave" stations can exist, and can communicate with the Buoy 601/701 profilers retrieving the collected data. First aim of these secondary "slave" stations is to have access to the Buoy 601/701 profiler remotely collected data from scientific stations, laboratories or administrative offices.
REBUS is a very powerful and flexible software which has been designed for the Windows© 32bit Operating systems, Win98/Win2000/WinNT, it permits to more than one customer to share the buoy 601/701 Profilers resources and to collected data interactively and iteratively. Ultimately, this allows gathering of data and management of the acquisition systems directly in the places where data processing and analyses are performed, whether they are scientific stations, laboratories or administrative offices. One of the most important features of this programme, resides in the possibility to modify the Buoy 601/701 profiler operating parameters and to obtain information on the Buoy 601/701 profiler status, thus avoiding the need to physically reach the Buoy 601/701 profiler to obtain the same information or to verify its operating conditions. Moreover, by means of the REBUS programme there is the possibility to follow, in near to real-time, the physical
processes operating in the water column and the chemical reactions occurring in marine waters due to a natural phenomenon or to an anthropic impact. As a consequence, it is possible to intervene by directly modifying the Buoy 601/701 profiler operating parameters at the right moment and in the right way, for example by varying the data acquisition frequency or the maximum, minimum depth.
Some of the main features of the programme are listed as follows:
- Simplified operator's interface taking advantage of the Windows operating system resources.
- Configuration and remote management of the Buoy 601/701 profiler.
- Retrieving and numerical representation of the data collected by the Buoy 601/701 profilers.
- Automatic communication, in the absence of an operator at four daily times or at repetitive time intervals.
- Retrieving and storing in text files of the Buoy 601/701 profilers status information.
- On-line contextual help system.
- Different levels of system security by means ofcustomisable Buoy 601/701 profiler access password and configuration access password.
