HR: 0800h
AN: OS51B-0473    [Abstracts]
TI: Using a Towed Vehicle to Identify Oceanographic Features: Triaxus Onboard the R/V Point Sur
AU: * Jokinen, B M
EM: BJokinen@mlml.calstate.edu
AF: Moss Landing Marine Labs, 7532 Sandholdt Rd. Suite #5, Moss Landing, CA 95039, United States
AB: Using a Towed Vehicle to Identify Oceanographic Features: Triaxus Onboard the R/V Point Sur Scientific demand to sample macro and micro scale dynamic processes in near coastal and open ocean environments by means of a single medium have furthered technological advances in towed undulating vehicles. One of the newer towed vehicles available to researchers using UNOLS vessels is the Triaxus. This vehicle has a large payload capacity, can be towed at relatively fast speeds (up to 8 knots), and can provide power to user supplied instruments. The Triaxus has been deployed from the R/V Point Sur and other vessels to effectively identify a variety of oceanographic features. Some of these features include: plume front propagation, locating and examining micro scale mixing events, illustration of mixed layer restratification in the presence of strong lateral density gradients, as well as the mapping of 3-dimensional variability of various aspects of the water column. In this work we present preliminary Triaxus tow data collected throughout a range of investigations utilizing an assortment of instrumentation to demonstrate the ability and effectiveness of this vehicle to identify and investigate a wide range of oceanographic features.
UR: http://marineops.mlml.calstate.edu/ptsur.html
DE: 4294 Instruments and techniques
DE: 4568 Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes (4490)
DE: 4572 Upper ocean and mixed layer processes
DE: 4594 Instruments and techniques
DE: 4894 Instruments, sensors, and techniques
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting