The Odas Italia 1, operated by CNR, is a weather-oceanographic buoy. It represents a unique example of a marine post-high altitude laboratory.
The structure, located in the open sea 40 miles from the coast in the Ligurian-Tuscan and Provençal basin, is 51 m long in total, 36 of which are submerged and has a weight of around 12 tonnes. The buoy is a completely autonomous laboratory, which draws energy from renewable sources of sun and wind, and communicates with the outside world using a satellite connection. Equipped with a set of meteorological sensors and an integrated weather station, and equipped with a barometer to measure atmospheric pressure and a compass, it allows to collect and transmit useful data to national and international meteorological centers, thus contributing to the realization of weather forecasts and allowing to develop comparisons between satellite observations and measurements collected directly at sea.