Completed Project: Coupled Boundary Layer – Air Sea Transfer (CBLAST) Experiment

The Upper Ocean Processes (UOP) Group deployed many meteorological and oceanographic instruments during the Intensive Operation Period (IOP) during August of 2003 in collaboration with several other research groups.

Five moorings were deployed mid-July in an area South of Martha's Vineyard, MA. Three of the moorings were equipped with Improved Meteorological systems that are capable of recording and telemetering meteorological data to WHOI. These moorings were also equipped with subsurface instruments capable of recording temperature, salinity, pressure, and current speed and direction. The two remaining large moorings were equipped with only subsurface instruments capable of recording temperature, salinity, and pressure.

At the beginning of the IOP, ten light moorings were deployed, equipped with subsurface instrumentation for temperature logging. Throughout the IOP, five drifters were periodically deployed and recovered to examine ocean currents. The drifters were instrumented to record location, temperature, salinity, pressure, and current speed and direction. Stand alone shortwave and longwave radiation and sea surface temperature measurements were taken from the fishing vessel used during these operations (F/V Nobska). In addition, an instrument chain was lowered from the vessel's boom to measure temperature, salinity, and pressure at various depths while underway.

The aim of the experiment is to capture the mesoscale development and response of inner shelf waters to local synoptic atmospheric, tidal and larger scale oceanic forcing under predominantly low wind conditions. Moorings are equipped with full surface metrological instrumentation packages that internally log and telemeter the data back to WHOI. This data is capable of providing the necessary measurements to compute local bulk air-sea heat flux values from the TOGA-COARE bulk algorithms. High-resolution subsurface instrumentation attached to the catenarys of each mooring will also provide times series data of currents, temperature and salinity at each mooring site throughout the deployments.

On recovery of the moorings in late August 2003, data was used to compare with the modeling efforts of NPGS at Monterey who were forecasting local atmospheric conditions with the COAMPS local atmospheric model. In addition, in house efforts using a local MM5 atmospheric model that is being run as part of the experiment were compared with the observational data. These efforts are also intended to help and improve the ongoing development of a the ROMS local ocean circulation model by researchers at Rutgers University.