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Liputan6.com, Jakarta Indonesia is a maritime country with water area accounting for two-thirds of its land area. Referring to the results of the International Convention on the Law of the Sea or United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), on December 10, 1982 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Indonesia’s maritime zone reached 3,257,357 square kilometers (km2).

Likewise, the coastline extends over 81,290 km, the second longest in the world after Canada. Faced with this reality, there are many challenges to understanding every detail of the characteristics and potential of the archipelago’s waters.

Indonesia certainly needs data related to oceanographic features, not only to meet its national interests, but also to play an increasingly global role. The measurement is important because Indonesian waters are subject to ocean currents (Indonesian flow).

Currents like this are a system that can change the characteristics of the world’s waters. Performing measurements/retrieving data requires an instrument capable of adapting to all water areas on a regular basis (in real time). This instrument must also be able to measure accurately in both shallow and deep seas.

Unfortunately, there is no instrument capable of taking regular measurements and usable in all types of Indonesian waters. This is what pushed Noir Primadona Purba to create a tool for monitoring and measuring water characteristics based on digital technology and at the same time respond to these challenges.

The lecturer at the Department of Maritime Affairs at the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences at Padjadjaran University in Bandung managed to create ARHEA, an acronym for Advanced Drifter GPS Oceanography Coverage Area. The form is a 1 meter long yellow aluminum tube, with a diameter of 144 millimeters and weighing approximately 15 kilograms.

The tube is equipped with various sensors, batteries, data storage, global positioning system (GPS), as well as radio and satellite communication systems. In open or closed waters, the tube will float because it is equipped with a float. This means that this tool follows the water plot wherever the current flows. At first glance, its operation is similar to that of an unmanned airplane or drone, but it moves underwater.