Early Student Support for the Origins of the Kuroshio and Mindanao Current

Authors: Daniel L Rudnick; SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY LA JOLLA CA

Abstract:

Autonomous underwater gliders are proving to be valuable tools for ocean sampling, and are being adopted remarkably rapidly by the oceanographic community. Oceanography has been primarily an observational science in the sense that almost every known phenomenon in the ocean was observed before it was predicted theoretically. The primary long-term goal of this project is to demonstrate the use of gliders to address basic scientific problems. Gliders are fulfilling the promise of continuous, sustained observation of the ocean down to length scales on the order of kilometers, a range now commonly termed the submesoscale. Gliders are proving to be especially useful in boundary currents. Glider data are being assimilated into regional ocean models, and because they are sustained in the region of interest, these data are often found to be profoundly influential in the predicted ocean state. We propose to use glider data to address these major issues: the temporal and spatial modulation of the submesoscale, variability of western boundary currents, and the value of glider data in assimilating models. The approach uses data sets that either exist or are currently being collected to address the objectives above. Through a variety of funding, we are compiling rich data sets from various locations around the globe using gliders. In this project, we propose to focus on data from four of these efforts. As part of the ongoing DRI Origins of the Kuroshio and Mindanao Currents, sections across the North Equatorial Current and the Mindanao Current are being continuously occupied in a 4-year effort. An ONR-funded program of glider deployments in the Kuroshio (Luzon Strait) provides continuous observations for the period April 2007-June 2008. With NOAA funding, we are gathering data on the California Current, with the earliest observations dating from 2005. And with NSF funding, we have studied thermohaline structure in the subtropical gyre north of Hawaii.

Limitations:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE