Deployment Cruise Report
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WHOI-2006-06 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20˚S, 85˚W) Mooring Recovery and Deployment Cruise R/V Ronald H. Brown Cruise 05-05, September 26, 2005–October 21, 2005 by Lara Hutto1 Robert Weller1 Jeff Lord1 Jason Smith1 Paul Bouchard1 Chris Fairall2 Sergio Pezoa2 Ludovic Bariteau3 Jessica Lundquist3 Virendra Ghate4 Rodrigo Castro5 Carolina Cisternas5 1Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, 3University of Colorado, CIRES, 4University of Miami, 5University of Concepcion February 2006 Technical Report Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant No. NA17RJ1223 and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research (CICOR). Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. E S S O C E R S P G R N O Upper Ocean Processes Group A U E P C Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution • O W R Woods Hole, MA 02543 E H P O P I U UOP Technical Report 2006-01 ABSTRACT The Ocean Reference Station at 20°S, 85°W under the stratus clouds west of northern Chile is being maintained to provide ongoing, climate-quality records of surface meteorology, of air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater, and momentum, and of upper ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity variability. The Stratus Ocean Reference Station (ORS Stratus) is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Observation Program. It is recovered and redeployed annually, with cruises that have come between October and December. During the October 2005 cruise of NOAA's R/V Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities were recovery of the WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in December 2004, deployment of a new WHOI surface mooring at that site, in-situ calibration of the buoy meteorological sensors by comparison with instrumentation put on board by staff of the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL), and observations of the stratus clouds and lower atmosphere by NOAA ETL. The ORS Stratus buoys are equipped with two Improved Meteorological (IMET) systems, which provide surface wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, precipitation rate, and sea surface temperature. The IMET data are made available in near real time using satellite telemetry. The mooring line carries instruments to measure ocean salinity, temperature, and currents. The ETL instrumentation used during the 2005 cruise included cloud radar, radiosonde balloons, and sensors for mean and turbulent surface meteorology. In addition, two technicians from the University of Concepcion collected water samples for chemical analysis. Finally, the cruise hosted a teacher participating in NOAA's Teacher at Sea Program. II This Page Left Intentionally Blank. III TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................................II TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. IV LIST OF FIGURES...................................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ IX ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................................................................... IX I. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE.........................................................................................1 II. STRATUS 2005 CRUISE..........................................................................................................................3 A. OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................................3 B. PRE-CRUISE AND CRUISE DETAILS............................................................................................................5 III. ORS STRATUS MOORINGS.................................................................................................................9 A. OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................................9 B. SURFACE INSTRUMENTS ...........................................................................................................................9 1. Improved Meteorological (IMET) Systems..........................................................................................9 C. SUBSURFACE INSTRUMENTS ...................................................................................................................10 1. Floating SST Sensor ..........................................................................................................................11 2. Subsurface Argos Transmitter...........................................................................................................11 3. SeaCat Conductivity and Temperature Recorders ............................................................................11 4. MicroCat Conductivity and Temperature Recorder..........................................................................11 5. Brancker Temperature Recorders (TPOD) .......................................................................................11 6. Brancker XR-420 Temperature and Conductivity Recorder .............................................................11 7. SBE-39 Temperature Recorder .........................................................................................................12 8. Vector Measuring Current Meters (VMCMs)....................................................................................12 9. Aanderaa Current Meter (Stratus 5 only) .........................................................................................12 10. RDI Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler ..........................................................................................12 11. SonTek Argonaut MD Current Meter..............................................................................................12 12. Nortek ...........................................................................................................................................12 13. Acoustic Release..............................................................................................................................12 D. STRATUS 5 RECOVERY ...........................................................................................................................13 1. Mooring Description .........................................................................................................................13 2. Recovery Process ..............................................................................................................................17 3. Time Spikes........................................................................................................................................18 4. Stratus 5 Instrument Performance.....................................................................................................20 5. Antifoulant performance....................................................................................................................20 E. STRATUS 6 DEPLOYMENT .......................................................................................................................23 1. Mooring Description .........................................................................................................................23 2. Time Spikes........................................................................................................................................27 3. Antifoulant Application .....................................................................................................................29 4. Deployment Process..........................................................................................................................30 5. Site of the Stratus 6 Surface Mooring................................................................................................35 IV. ETL MEASUREMENTS........................................................................................................................40 A. BACKGROUND ON MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS..........................................................................................40 B. SELECTED SAMPLES ...............................................................................................................................41 1. Flux Data............................................................................................................................................41 2. Remote Sensing Data..........................................................................................................................42 IV C. CRUISE SUMMARY RESULTS...................................................................................................................43 1. Basic Time Series ...............................................................................................................................43 2. Boundary Layer and Cloud Properties ..............................................................................................44