R/V Seward Johnson Cruise Report (SJ-9807) ACCE S-PALACE Float Deployments

• Main Authors: Montgomery, Ellyn T., Guest, Brian J.
• Other Authors: WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION MA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *OCEAN CURRENTS; *TROPICAL REGIONS; *SALINITY; OCEAN SURFACE; ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE; WEATHER FORECASTING; OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA; MARINE CLIMATOLOGY; NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; ALACE(AUTONOMOUS LAGRANGIAN CURRENT EXPLORER); ACCE(ATLANTIC CIRCULATION AND CLIMATE EXPERIMENT); North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA362874; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA362874

R/V Seward Johnson cruise 98-07 occurred between October 12 and November 5, 1998. The goal of the cruise was to deploy 30 Salinity Profiling Autonomous Lagrangian Current Explorer (S-PALACE) floats in the tropical Atlantic as part of the Atlantic Circulation and Climate Experiment (ACCE). These floats are neutrally buoyant and drift with the water in which they are deployed. They are programmed to obtain temperature and salinity profiles of the top 1000 meters of the ocean every ten days. To ascertain the validity of the float data, a CTD profile was made at the site and time of the deployment of each float. The data from these floats augments data already being obtained from ten floats deployed in July of 1997. Given 40 floats in the tropical North Atlantic, reporting every 10 or 14 days with an expected operational life of 3-5 years, we hope to gather 5000 to 7000 temperature and conductivity profiles in the coming years. The temperature and salinity profiles, along with derived properties will aid in examining the mechanisms of upper ocean heat and freshwater storage. This data, combined with satellite sea surface data should provide useful input to climate and weather prediction models.