Upper Ocean Mooring Data Repository - TOGA COARE: Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment
Meteorological Instrumentation

COARE Ocean Sensor Depths, Serial Numbers, and Timing

A mooring servicing occurred between 9 and 13 December which resulted in changes in instrument depth.

From 9 December 1992 00:45 UTC to 13 December 05:25 UTC, the surface discus buoy was temporarily replaced with a toroid buoy. A length of wire rope inserted below the toroid increased the depth of all sub-surface instruments by 10m from their nominal deployment depths. When the discus buoy was replaced on 13 December, the 10m length of wire used with the toroid was removed and a 2.29m length of chain was permanently added below the bridle of the discus buoy.

These depth changes have been accounted for in all the WHOI mooring files by interpolating measurements to their original deployment depth plus 2.29m throughout the entire deployment. For instruments attached to the buoy hull (i.e., temperatures above 4.65m and salinity at 2.0m), no interpolation was necessary and no data was available between 9 and 13 December when the discus buoy was removed from the water. Because the mooring was lowered by 10m at this time (between 9 and 13 December), no data from the water column was available shallower than 10m (the shallowest instrument, the 4.65m temperature sensor, was lowered to 14.65m). The deepest temperature (260m) and salinity (124m) measurements were interpolated to their original deployment depth. The resulting data files report depths as the depth of interpolation, not the original deployment depth. Interpolation for temperature and east and north currents were linear with depth. Interpolation for salinity was linear in temperature/salinity space where possible, linear with depth otherwise.

Velocities provided below the deepest VMCM (52.5m) were measured by the ADCP.

Acronyms for instruments are provided in a list.

This is a list of instruments deployed. See the meta data file for the depths of instruments in the data files.