228 research outputs found

    CPIES Data Collected Near Hydrostation S Southeast of Bermuda from June 2016 to June 2017

    Get PDF
    This report focuses on data collected from four current meter equipped pressure inverted echo sounders (CPIES), two with respectively two and one Popeye Data Shuttles (PDS) on them, and two dual-pressure CPIES each with a Paroscientific stable oceanographic sensor (SOS) and a 46K sensor that has a long track record of previous deployments with low-drift, deployed from June 2016 to June 2017 near Hydrostation S, 25 km southeast of Bermuda (Figure 1). The CPIES were moored at similar depths, ranging from approximately 3400 to 3600 m, at sites numbered clockwise around Hydrostation S as P1, P2, P3, and P4

    The Polar Front in Drake Passage: A composite‐mean stream‐coordinate view

    Get PDF
    The Polar Front (PF) is studied using 4 years of data collected by a line of current‐ and pressure‐recording inverted echo sounders in Drake Passage complemented with satellite altimetry. The location of the PF is bimodal in latitude. A northern and southern PF exist at separate times, separated geographically by a seafloor ridge—the Shackleton Fracture Zone—and hydrographically by 17 cm of geopotential height. Expressed in stream coordinates, vertical structures of buoyancy are determined with a gravest empirical mode analysis. Baroclinic velocity referenced to zero at 3500 dbar, width, and full transport (about 70 Sv) of the jets are statistically indistinguishable; the two jets alternate carrying the baroclinic transport rather than coexisting. Influences of local bathymetry and deep cyclogenesis manifest as differences in deep reference velocity structures. Downstream reference velocities of the PF‐N and PF‐S reach maximum speeds of 0.09 and 0.06 m s−1, respectively. Buoyancy fields are indicative of upwelling and poleward residual circulation at the PF. Based on potential vorticity and mixing lengths, the northern and southern PF both act as a barrier to cross‐frontal exchange while remaining susceptible to baroclinic instability

    Divergent Eddy Heat Fluxes in the Kuroshio Extension at 144°–148°E. Part I: Mean Structure

    Get PDF
    The Kuroshio Extension System Study (KESS) provided 16 months of observations to quantify eddy heat flux (EHF) from a mesoscale-resolving array of current- and pressure-equipped inverted echo sounders (CPIES). The mapped EHF estimates agreed well with point in situ measurements from subsurface current meter moorings. Geostrophic currents determined with the CPIES separate the vertical structure into an equivalent-barotropic internal mode and a nearly depth-independent external mode measured in the deep ocean. As a useful by-product of this decomposition, the divergent EHF (DEHF) arises entirely from the correlation between the external mode and the upper-ocean thermal front. EHFs associated with the internal mode are completely rotational. DEHFs were mostly downgradient and strongest just upstream of a mean trough at ~147°E. The downgradient DEHFs resulted in a mean-to-eddy potential energy conversion rate that peaked midthermocline with a magnitude of 10 × 10−3 cm2 s−3 and a depth-averaged value of 3 × 10−3 cm2 s−3. DEHFs were vertically coherent, with subsurface maxima exceeding 400 kW m−2 near 400-m depth. The subsurface maximum DEHFs occurred near the depth where the quasigeostrophic potential vorticity lateral gradient changes sign from one layer to the next below it. The steering level is deeper than this depth of maximum DEHFs. A downgradient parameterization could be fitted to the DEHF vertical structure with a constant eddy diffusivity Îș that had values of 800–1400 m2 s−1 along the mean path. The resulting divergent meridional eddy heat transport across the KESS array was 0.05 PW near 35.25°N, which may account for ~⅓ of the total Pacific meridional heat transport at this latitude

    cDrake CPIES Data Report November 2007 to December 2011

    Get PDF
    The goal of cDrake is to quantify the transport and understand the dynamic balances of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in Drake Passage. For this purpose, a transport line spanning all of Drake Passage and a local dynamics array of CPIES were deployed for a period of four years. A CPIES comprises an inverted echo sounder equipped with a bottom pressure gauge and a current meter tethered 50 m above the bottom. In addition to the CPIESs, three current meter moorings were deployed along the continental margins for the initial two years of the field program. Subsequently, a current meter comparison mooring was deployed in a region of strong bottom currents for a period of one year. Conductivity-temperature-depth and lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements were taken at each CPIES site. Shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler measured the velocity structure along the cruise track. In this report, the CPIES data collected during the field experiment are presented. The collection, processing and calibration of the CPIES are described

    Eddy Heat Flux Across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current Estimated from Sea Surface Height Standard Deviation

    Get PDF
    Eddy heat flux (EHF) is a predominant mechanism for heat transport across the zonally unbounded mean flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Observations of dynamically relevant, divergent, 4 year mean EHF in Drake Passage from the cDrake project, as well as previous studies of atmospheric and oceanic storm tracks, motivates the use of sea surface height (SSH) standard deviation, H*, as a proxy for depth‐integrated, downgradient, time‐mean EHF ( ) in the ACC. Statistics from the Southern Ocean State Estimate corroborate this choice and validate throughout the ACC the spatial agreement between H* and seen locally in Drake Passage. Eight regions of elevated are identified from nearly 23.5 years of satellite altimetry data. Elevated cross‐front exchange usually does not span the full latitudinal width of the ACC in each region, implying a hand‐off of heat between ACC fronts and frontal zones as they encounter the different hot spots along their circumpolar path. Integrated along circumpolar streamlines, defined by mean SSH contours, there is a convergence of in the ACC: 1.06 PW enters from the north and 0.02 PW exits to the south. Temporal trends in low‐frequency [EHF] are calculated in a running‐mean sense using H* from overlapping 4 year subsets of SSH. Significant increases in downgradient [EHF] magnitude have occurred since 1993 at Kerguelen Plateau, Southeast Indian Ridge, and the Brazil‐Malvinas Confluence, whereas the other five hot spots have insignificant trends of varying sign

    Cascadia Pilot Experiment Data Report

    Get PDF
    This report documents the processing of data collected from an line of inverted echo sounders equipped with bottom pressure gauges and current meters (CPIES) deployed offshore of Oregon in the Cascadia subduction zone region from April to November 2017. The line consisted of four URI-model CPIES across the continental slope, spanning water depths from 2900 m to 1300 m. From offshore to onshore, the sites were designated O1, O1.5, O2 and O3. The instrument spacing telescoped toward the coast from 3.5 km to 7 km to 9 km. CTDs were taken at each site on the deployment and recovery cruises. Additionally, two Sonardyne-model PIES (lacking the integrated current meter) were colocated at the deepest and shallowest sites (O1 and O3) for comparison tests. An Aanderaa Seaguard current meter was moored in August 2017 at site O2 because the status of CPIES current meter at that location was uncertain

    PIES and CPIES Data Processing Manual

    Get PDF
    The Inverted Echo Sounder (IES) is an ocean bottom-moored instrument that measures the vertical acoustic travel time (VATT) round-trip from the seafloor to the sea surface and back. The VATT varies principally due to changes in the temperature profile of the water column, making the IES well-suited for monitoring changes in temperature structure and dynamic height (baroclinic signal). Currently, the Model 6.2, a combined IES, data-logger, and acoustic release, with measurements of bottom pressure and temperature (PIES) and optional measurements of current speed and direction (CPIES, with attached Aanderaa Doppler current sensor) is produced at URI/GSO. Data are processed in situ and are available (optional) remotely by an acoustic telemetry link. In addition to the IES-measured baroclinic signals, barotropic near-bottom pressure variations may be measured with the optional pressure sensor. A report was written in 1991 describing IES data processing [Fields et al., 1991]. Since that report, significant improvements have been made to both IES hardware and software, warranting an update of the IES data processing. The report by Kennelly et al. [2007] documents the standard processing steps contained in IESpkg 3, which has been used since the early 2000s, for IES/PIES/CPIES Models 6.1 and 6.2 at URI/GSO. More recently, IESpkg 4 was developed to allow more flexibility in the processing steps and data outputs, and to process the Fast PIES versions that sample 96 travel times each hour. This report documents the processing steps in IESpkg 4 and it repeats as much of the original text of Kennelly et al. [2007] as is still applicable. A separate document, Inverted Echo Sounder User\u27s Manual, IES Model 6.2, describes the IES hardware and instrument configuratio
    • 

    corecore