Development of a Rapid Autonomous Surface Vehicle System for Submesoscale Air-Sea Interaction Research (RASVS)
Abstract
Ocean fronts and related submesoscale processes at the air-sea interface are of growing Navalinterest in oceanography and marine atmospheric science. They are regions where the oceanic andatmospheric boundary layers depart from the usual boundary-layer assumptions that verticalgradients in the relevant variables (e.g., currents, wind speed, temperature, gas concentration,biogeochemical variables) are much larger than the horizontal gradients, and so can involve muchhorizontal and vertical mixing and upwelling and downwelling. They are also regions where wavecurrentinteraction can lead to significant wave breaking with concomitant increases in bubblemediatedgas transfer, ambient noise and momentum flux from waves to currents. Thus, to measurethese processes in the Surface Ocean and Lower Atmosphere (SOLA) requires combined in situmeasurements on both sides of the air-sea interface at scales where regular research vesselsinterfere with the flows and measurements. In this proposal, we request the purchase of a SOLAinstrumentedautonomous surface vehicle (ASV), a Global C-Worker 5, a fast, diesel-poweredplatform capable of speeds up to 10kts, equipped with a Planck Aerosystems tethered multicopterinstrumented with visible and infrared cameras. The system can operate taking SOLA data for 7-10 days unattended. When deployed, either independently or in coordinated tracks with ourexisting Modular Airborne Sensing System, this ASV platform will significantly enhance ourability to measure the generation and evolution of ocean fronts and other rapidly evolvingsubmesoscale processes of Naval interest.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 13, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912411
Entities
People
- Wallace Melville
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego