Being knowledgeable of the marine environment and how it behaves, plays an important part in the conduct of naval operations. The Hydrographic Service is in charge of planning and conducting oceanographic research to study and find out about the physical parameters and natural phenomena of the marine environment, to the benefit of the HN. It is a set of scientific works, known as  Military Oceanography, implementing operational oceanography, with a view to supporting the units of our fleet. Oceanography Directorate is in charge of such tasks.

The instruments used include: 

CTD instrument packages

 Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) instruments are used to determine the main physical parameters of the water and the speed of sound propagation in it.

Current Meters

Mechanical and acoustic current meters are used to measure the speed and direction of currents in different regions of the Aegean and Ionian Seas at selected depths.

At the same time wave conditions prevailing in Greece’s maritime space are assessed. These forecasts are intended for use by the Ministry of Merchant Marine for the departure of certain passenger ships. They result from the use of mathematical models to estimate the wave field taking into account the speed and direction of winds in the area of interest.

The Directorate also collects bathythermographic and other observations from other ships and services of the HN. These are processed, sorted and used accordingly.

Differents Type Acoustic Current Meter

 (Side Scan Sonar)

Type 'Chirp' Sub-bottom Profiler

It determines the stratigraphy of the seabed structure to a depth of several meters, depending on the particle size distribution of sediments in the area studied.

Surface Sediment Samples

It takes disturbed samples of surface sediment. Such samples are analyzed in the laboratory to sort sediments based on their particle size distribution and determine the content of carbonates in them.

Gravity Core Sampler

It takes samples of bottom sediment cores. The undisturbed samples taken are analyzed in the laboratory to sort sediments based on their particle size distribution across the entire sampling length, as well as to determine the percentage of carbonates, the density and shear strength of core sediments.