Acquisition of EM-APEX Floats for ONR DRI Experiment - NISKINE

Abstract

We propose to equip six EM-APEX floats purchased under this DURIP with microstructure sensors for the ONR DRI NISKINE autonomous experiment of spring 2019 to spring 2020 to measure oceanic near-inertial waves, turbulence and their modulations by submesoscale and mesoscale processes. Floats will be purchased from Teledyne Webb Research Corp (TWRC), and assembled and recalibrated at APL, University of Washington. These floats will provide high temporal and vertical resolutions of ocean velocity, temperature, salinity, and turbulence from the surface to as deep as 2000 m. EM-APEX floats have been used in numerous ONR experiments, including CBLAST, QPE, ITOP, OKMC, and LatMix. In the latest LatMix experiment, microstructure thermistors were added in order to provide turbulent mixing measurements. In all instances, floats have performed very well and provided quality observations. Recently, EM-APEX floats have also been used to study storm-driven near-inertial waves and turbulent mixing in the western North Pacific. We plan to deploy these six floats in the upcoming ONR-DRI NISKINE field experiment in spring 2019. These floats will take long-term (spring 2019 – spring 2020) measurements of internal waves and turbulence to study near-inertial wave generation, propagation, interaction with balanced meso- and submesoscale shears, and dissipation.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Aug 20, 2019
Source ID
N000141912587

Entities

People

  • Ren-Chieh Lien

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy
  • University of Washington

Tags

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Oceanography.
  • Research Science/Academic Research