Moored Profiling Instrument for Observing Finescale Velocity, Temperature and Salinity Variability in the Coastal Environment

摘要

One of the long-standing research interests in physical oceanography is the nature of finescale variability in the ocean and its relationships to turbulent dissipation and mixing. With the support of the present grant, a new moored instrument system capable of cycling vertically through the ocean and returning repeated profiles of the velocity, temperature and salinity structure, has been developed and field tested. First, scientific use of these instruments was in May-June 1998 as part of the Littoral Internal Wave Initiative. Three new Moored Profiler Instruments were deployed in a coherent array on the continental slope and synchronized to return vertical profiles every 1.5 hours. The vertical and horizontal information obtained from this coherent array will allow quantified tests of internal wave generation/reflection models. Improved understanding of the finescale velocity and density fields, and ultimately the mixing process in the littoral ocean, will result.