Upper Ocean Mooring Data Repository - Arabian Sea Experiment

Overview:

The Arabian Sea Experiment, funded by the Office Of Naval Research, took place near the climatological mean axis of the Findlater Jet in the Arabian Sea. A moored array was deployed in order to improve understanding of air-sea interaction in the region, and in particular to investigate the oceanic response to the strong, large-scale atmospheric forcing associated with the summer and winter monsoons. The Upper Ocean Processes Group maintained a surface mooring at the site for one year. The nominal water depth was 4030 m.

Location:

At 15° 30´N, 61° 30´E. A map is available.

Duration:

One year, from October 1994 to October 1995.

Mooring Specifications:

A discus buoy with meteorological and oceanographic instrumentation was deployed as part of a five-mooring array. Four outer moorings, deployed by investigators from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Washington, formed a square of approximately 50 km on a side with the discus buoy at the center. Only results from the discus buoy mooring are documented here. The one year total duration was accomplished by back-to-back 6 month deployments at the same site.

Mooring details are presented in a table.

Instrumentation:

The discus buoy was outfitted with two independent meteorological sensor systems. Both systems contained sensors sufficient for estimating the bulk fluxes of momentum and heat. A single meteorological record was created for the site using a combination of data from both systems. The variables observed are listed in the table of meteorological instrumentation.

A variety of oceanographic variables were measured within the upper 300 m of the water column. Only temperature, velocity and salinity measurements are reported here. Temperature was measured from 0.17 m to 300 m depth with vertical resolution that varied from less than 0.5 m (in the upper 2 m) to 25 m (between 100 and 300 m depth). Velocity was measured from 5 m to 80 m depth with vertical resolution between 5 and 15 m. Salinity was measured from 1.4 to 250 m with resolution between 10 and 50 m. The variables observed are described in a table of oceanographic instrumentation.

Data:

More detailed information and access to data files is organized by data type:
Meteorology
Water Velocity
Temperature
Salinity

References:

Ostrom, William M., Way, Bryan S., Weller, Robert A., Ware, Jonathan D., Trask, Richard A., 1996: Arabian Sea mixed layer dynamics experiment mooring recovery cruise report : R/V Thomas Thompson Cruise Number 52, 14 October-25 October 1995, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. Tech. Rep. WHOI-96-11, Woods Hole, MA, 64 pp. abstract pdf
Trask, Richard P., Weller, Robert A. Ostrom, William M., 1995: Arabian Sea mixed layer dynamics experiment : mooring deployment cruise report R/V Thomas Thompson cruise number 46, 14 April-29 April 1995 Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. Tech. Rep. WHOI-95-14, Woods Hole, MA, 88 pp. abstract pdf
Trask, Richard P., Way, Bryan S.,Ostrom, William M, Allsup, Geoffrey P., Weller, Robert A., 1995: Arabian Sea mixed layer dynamics experiment : mooring deployment cruise report R/V Thomas Thompson cruise number 40, 11 October-25 October 1994. Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. Tech. Rep. WHOI-95-01, Woods Hole, MA, 62 pp. abstract pdf
Fischer, Albert S., 1997: Arabian Sea mixed layer deepening during the monsoon: Observations and dynamics M.S. Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 130pp.
Fischer, Albert S.,et al, 1996 Temporal Variability of Surface Fluxes and Mixed Layer Response at 15.5 °N, 61.5 °E over a Monsoonal Cycle

Last updated: March 10, 2008