LIDEX: Lagrangian Isopycnal Dispersion Experiment

University Of Rhode Island, Kingston RI

Investigators

Abstract

0117660 Hebert/URI This project is an attempt to get direct information about isopycnal dispersion and property fluxes in the ocean, over scales from O(1) Km to O(100) Km, by deploying clusters of isopycnal RAFOS floats. Over their two-year missions, these floats will map out the turbulent flow along two different density surfaces in a region of the eastern, tropical Atlantic, roughly 1400Km west of Africa. The floats will measure position, pressure, temperature and oxygen. Data on the trajectories of the floats, together with data from a hydrographic survey carried out at the time of float deployment, will be analyzed to provide estimates of absolute and relative dispersion rates as well as strain, vorticity and mean flow. Fluxes of temperature and oxygen will also be estimated. The experimental region coincides with the edge of a tongue of low oxygen water that stretches westward from the African coast. A secondary objective of the work is to obtain a better description of the low oxygen tongue and, by obtaining data about flow and eddy fluxes, determine the processes responsible for its structure.