Collaborative Research: Field Testing RAFOS-Enabled SOLO Floats (SGER)

0243315 Owens该提案将建造三个新的启用RAFOS的海洋拉格朗日探空观测站(SOLO)浮标，并在部署在北大西洋的声源射线中对它们进行测试。该实验是一个重要的技术演示项目，它将为其他一些现场项目开发的软件和硬件结合在一起，以生产具有重要新功能的新型浮球。这些花车将基于单人花车的设计，因此，无论它们在世界上的哪个地方，至少每10天就可以对它们进行跟踪，并在它们浮到海面时提供温度和盐度分布。它们将配备RAFOS接收器，以便当它们在声源的声学范围内时，可以每天跟踪它们，以提供长达100天的更高频率的速度轨迹。它们还将被编程为跟随等轴线，这样我们就可以观察到与海洋中的初级混合有关的等轴面上的浮动位移。最后，花车将被设计成利用新的双向通信能力，这样如果实验要求在部署后发生变化，或者如果它们的任何传感器发生故障，它们都可以重新编程。这种设计的浮标将特别适合最终部署在南大洋。南极绕极流(ACC)的高流速和波涛汹涌的海况使得部署和维护海流计变得困难，这意味着浮标是估计涡流通量的首选方法。由于其强大的流动，ACC很可能在浮标电池耗尽之前很久就将浮标平流出一个统一的盆地，这意味着纯粹的RAFOS浮标可能无法为其任务的很大一部分提供有用的数据。在南大洋，等轴面跟踪能力很重要，因为主要的混合被认为发生在ACC强烈倾斜的等轴面上。这项提案将支持将当前的RAFOS浮标能力与现有的Argo浮标技术相结合的技术开发。这一发展很可能在物理海洋学和气候方面的广泛研究中有用。

0243315 OwensThis proposal will build three new RAFOS-enabled isopycnal-following Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangian Observer (SOLO) floats and test them within a sound sourcearray that is being deployed in the North Atlantic. The experiment is an important technology demonstration project that brings together software and hardware that have been developed for a number of other field programs to produce a novel float with important new capabilities. The floats will be based on the SOLO float design so that, at the least, they can be tracked every 10 days no matter where they go in the world and provide temperature and salinity profiles when they rise to the ocean surface. They will be equipped with RAFOS receivers so that when they are within acoustic range of sound sources, they can be tracked daily to provide higher frequency velocity trajectories that are of order 100 days in length. They will also be programmed to follow isopycnals, so that we can observe float displacements along isopycnal surfaces that are associated with the primary mixing in the ocean. Finally, the floats will be designed to take advantage of new two-way communication capabilities, so that they can be reprogrammed if experimental requirements change after deployment or if any of their sensors fail. Floats of this design will be particularly well-suited for eventual deployment in the Southern Ocean. The high velocities and rough sea state of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) make it a difficult region to deploy and maintain current meters, meaning that floats are the preferred method for estimating eddy fluxes. Because of its strong flow, the ACC is likely to advect floats out of an ensonified basin long before the depletion of the float batteries, meaning that pure RAFOS floats may not provide useful data for significant portions of their missions. Isopycnal-following capabilities are important in the Southern Ocean, because the predominant mixing is thought to occur along the strongly tilted isopycnal surfaces of the ACC. This proposal will support development of technology that merges current RAFOS float capabilities with existing ARGO float technology. This development is likely to be useful in a wide range of research in physical oceanography and climate..