Deliberate Tracer Injections of Sulfur Hexafluoride on the West Florida Shelf in Support of: An AUV-based Investigation of the Role of Nutrient Variability in the Predictive Modeling of Physical Processes in the Littoral Ocean.

摘要

Our long-term goal is to explore and test the potential effectiveness of low-level nutrient concentrations (nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) as descriptors of geophysical fields and tracers of physical processes in oligotrophic coastal waters. To test the validity of this approach, studies are performed using the deliberately injected inert tracer sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and the advection and dispersion patterns of this tracer are compared with the patterns observed with the naturally occurring low-level nutrient concentrations. The SF6 work includes development of sampling methods to characterize the tracer field with high spatial and temporal resolution in near real-time.