HR: 0800h
AN: OS21A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Long Term Ocean Observatories: The Bermuda Testbed Mooring and Hale-Aloha.
AU: * Spada, F W
EM: frank.spada@opl.ucsb.edu
AF: OPL/UCSB, 6487 Calle Real, unit A, Goleta, Ca 93117, United States
AU: Manov, D
EM: derek.manov@opl.ucsb.edu
AF: OPL/UCSB, 6487 Calle Real, unit A, Goleta, Ca 93117, United States
AU: Chang, G
EM: Grace.chang@opl.ucsb.edu
AF: OPL/UCSB, 6487 Calle Real, unit A, Goleta, Ca 93117, United States
AU: Dickey, T
EM: tommy.dickey@opl.ucsb.edu
AF: OPL/UCSB, 6487 Calle Real, unit A, Goleta, Ca 93117, United States
AB: Long term deep-sea ocean observatories and the advancement of sensor technologies have greatly improved our ability to understand the dynamic forces affecting the ocean. In order to understand and predict ocean variability, interdisciplinary time series observations on scales from seconds to decades are required. The Bermuda Testbed Mooring (BTM), located southeast of Bermuda (BATS site), and the HALE-ALOHA (H-A) mooring, north of Hawaii (HOT site), are two existing interdisciplinary deep-sea mooring programs. Both moorings are located in approximately 4500 m water depth and provide fundamental measurements of meteorological, physical, and optical variables. The BTM program, funded by NSF and ONR, has served the oceanographic community since 1994; H-A, initially sponsored by NSF in 1997, has been funded by NOPP since 2002. These deep-sea moorings have proven their value in detecting and observing processes that cannot be captured with ship- or satellite-based sampling. BTM and H-A data have been collected during passages of tropical storms, mesoscale eddies, Rossby waves, dust deposition events, rapid shoaling of the mixed layer, phytoplankton bloom events, inertial oscillations, diel and shorter time scale variability in phytoplankton and bio- optical properties, and internal gravity waves. Recently, BTM data was collected during near direct hits by two hurricanes, Fabian (2004) and Florence (2006). BTM and H-A data sets have been used to develop improved models of several upper ocean processes during and in the wakes of extreme wind forcing events. High resolution time series data of these events have led to shifts in our understanding of the forces driving these processes. To facilitate scientific studies requiring high frequency spatial coverage, complementary ship-based, sediment trap mooring, AUV, glider, and satellite data sets have been used along with BTM and H-A data to expand the utility of collective regional scientific research efforts off Bermuda and Hawaii. These data sets have also been used to calibrate and validate satellite-based ocean observations. Deep-sea mooring programs such as BTM and H-A will continue to provide detailed time series observations of long term oceanographic trends as well as the monitoring of extreme events.
DE: 4513 Decadal ocean variability (1616, 1635, 3305, 4215)
DE: 4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes
DE: 4572 Upper ocean and mixed layer processes
DE: 4594 Instruments and techniques
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly