Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Lagrangian measurements of low frequency currents in the vicinity
of the Gulf Stream and its recirculation region in the western Sargasso
Sea were made by tracking SOFAR floats. These floats were tracked using
acoustic time of arrival information from an array of five Autonomous
Listening Stations {ALSs) which were moored in the western Sargasso Sea.
The ALSs performed almost flawlessly, returning over 90 percent of the
possible data.
Floats were released in three deployments of seven floats each in
November 1982, February 1983, and June 1983. The floats were launched
in initially coherent arrays (approximately 20 km spacing) at 34°N, 70°W,
Site "L", and were ballasted for 700 m depth. The SOFAR floats themselves
functioned with somewhat less than expected reliability; four
floats failed fairly soon after launch, and several other floats suffered
failures of their temperature and pressure telemetry.
The majority of the SOFAR floats launched in this program produced
long, and interesting trajectories. These new data will be valuable for
estimating first order flow statistics in the dynamically important
recirculation region, for visualizing interactions between the Gulf
Stream and the New England Seamount Chain, and for estimating one and
two particle diffusivities in a region of very high eddy energy.
Description:
Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation
under grant Number OCE 81-17 467.
Keywords:
Oceanographic buoys
;
Ocean circulation
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Technical Report
Format:
application/pdf
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