HR: 15:30h
AN: OS34A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Current Measurements From the SEED Field Experiment
AU: * Teague, W J
EM: teague@nrlssc.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-5004 United States
AU: Mitchell, D A
EM: doug.mitchell@nrlssc.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-5004 United States
AU: Hulbert, M S
EM: mark.hulbert@nrlssc.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-5004 United States
AU: Jacobs, G A
EM: gregg.jacobs@nrlssc.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-5004 United States
AU: Hogan, P J
EM: patrick.hogan@nrlssc.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-5004 United States
AB: To understand the mechanisms that transfer properties, such as heat, salt, energy, marine organisms, and materials, across the shelf slope, the Naval Research Laboratory has undertaken an intensive measurement program as part of its Slope to Shelf Energetics and Exchange Dynamics (SEED) project. With the primary focus on the currents, 14 acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) were deployed on the shelf and down the slope just west of the DeSoto Canyon in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico in May 2004. The ADCPs were serviced in November and all are scheduled for recovery in May 2005. The ADCPs measured nearly full water column current profiles on the shelf at depths of 60 and 90 m with 2 m resolution. On the slope current profiles in the upper 500 m were measured at water depths ranging to 1000 m with 10 m resolution. Additional current measurements were made 100 m above the bottom for the deep moorings. Preliminary results for the first six months show a mean two-layer flow pattern on the shelf and slope, with currents towards the northeast (onshore) in the upper layer and currents toward the southwest (offshore) in the lower level. There is a large monthly variability in the flow. Cross shelf exchange processes appear to be mainly driven by storm and eddy events. Fortuitously, Hurricane Ivan passed directly over the moorings and forced very intense flows.
DE: 4219 Continental shelf processes
DE: 4512 Currents
DE: 4546 Nearshore processes
DE: 4572 Upper ocean processes
DE: 4594 Instruments and techniques
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly