OPEN OCEAN DRIFT

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OPEN OCEAN DRIFT

DEPLOYMENT EXAMPLE

PAYLOAD:

  • RBRmaestro CTD

  • Turner Cyclops 7-F ChlA

  • Turner Cyclops 7-F CDOM

  • Turner Cyclops 7-F Turbidity

  • JFE RINKO III Dissolved Oxygen Sensor

  • Nortek Signature1000

  • OSU chi-pod

INSTITUTION:

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, MOD Lab

DEPLOYMENT LOCATION:

Bay of Bengal

SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY:

The upper-ocean responds to, and influences, the atmosphere across a range of time scales. It is also home to important biogeochemical transformations that modulate the ocean’s impact on the carbon cycle, drives its productivity, and thus influence global fisheries, and controls the ventilation (oxygenation) of the ocean interior.  

Shown in Figure 1 is a 13-day Wirewalker drift deployment in a mesoscale eddy, and through a fresh filament in the Bay of Bengal. The Wirewalker performed 2,414 profiles to a depth of 100m that allowed for quantitative characterization of the vertical fluxes of heat and salt. The plot shows temperature (oC), salinity (PSU), chlorophyll-a (ug/L), and turbulent kinetic energy (W/kg). It was determined that the upper-ocean stratification was dominated by salinity, which is ultimately derived from freshwater input at the boundary of the basin and from the atmosphere. Turbulent exchanges between the upper ocean and the stratified interior were generally weak. Near inertial shear was elevated at the base of the mixed layer but not between the barrier layer and the continuously stratified interior. This suggests that multi-layer stratification may dampen the capacity of near-inertial oscillations to drive vertical exchange in the upper ocean in salinity structured systems such as the Bay of Bengal.

 

Figure 1 - 13-day Wirewalker drift deployment in a mesoscale eddy, and through a fresh filament in the Bay of Bengal.

REFERENCE:

Deployment ExamplesChris KontoesCTD, CDOM, Backscatter, Dissoloved Oxygen, Microstructure, Chlorophyll-A