R/V Shana Rae operations in support of April 2015 AirSWOT campaign, April 17-20, 2015
Overview
A field campaign was conducted in April 2015 to examine the performance of AirSWOT and to better understand how its measurements are affected by surface waves and currents. AirSWOT is an aircraft-mounted instrument for measuring and imaging sea surface height (SSH), similar to the SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Topography) instrument to be deployed on a satellite in 2020. Supporting measurements were collected from the RV Shana Rae, the RV Fulmar, and a second aircraft (a Partenavia P68 operated by Aspen Helicopter, Oxnard, CA for UCSD/SIO).
From 17-20 April 2015, the R/V Shana Rae, a 50-foot research vessel, was used for collection of Underway CTD (or UCTD) measurements and for deployment and recovery of three EM/APEX floats in a study area off the central California coast. The UCTD measurements were used to estimate the sea surface height signal associated with variations in ocean density structure. The EM/APEX floats provide time series of the same, as well as vertical profiles of ocean velocity. The purpose of this web site is to document the shipboard operations on the R/V Shana Rae and the resulting UCTD and EM/APEX data sets.
Funding for this project was provided by NASA.
Page updated: Nov 18, 2015