Description: This cruise aimed to identify transport pathways from the surface into the interior ocean during the late winter in the Alborán sea between the Strait of Gibraltar (5°40’W) and the prime meridian. Theory and previous observations indicated that these pathways likely originated at strong fronts, such as the one that separates salty Mediterranean water and the fresher water in owing from the Atlantic. Our goal was to map such pathways and quantify their transport. Since the outcropping isopycnals at the front extend to the deepest depths during the late winter, we planned the cruise at the end of the Spring, prior to the onset of thermal stratification of the surface mixed layer.

Description: Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N000141613130.

Description: The Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS) was established to address the need for accurate air-sea flux estimates and upper ocean measurements in a region with strong sea surface temperature anomalies and the likelihood of significant local air–sea interaction on interannual to decadal timescales. The approach is to maintain a surface mooring outfitted for meteorological and oceanographic measurements at a site near 15°N, 51°W by successive mooring turnarounds. These observations are used to investigate air–sea interaction processes related to climate variability. The NTAS Ocean Reference Station (ORS NTAS) is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Program (formerly Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division). This report documents recovery of the NTAS-19 mooring and deployment of the NTAS-20 mooring at the same site. Both moorings used Surlyn foam buoys as the surface element. These buoys were outfitted with two Air–Sea Interaction Meteorology (ASIMET) systems. Each system measures, records, and transmits via satellite the surface meteorological variables necessary to compute air–sea fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum. The upper 160 m of the mooring line were outfitted with oceanographic sensors for the measurement of temperature, salinity and velocity. The mooring turnaround was done by the Upper Ocean Processes Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), onboard R/V Pisces, Cruise PC-21-07. The cruise took place from November 4 to 28, 2021. The NTAS-20 mooring was deployed on November 12, and the NTAS-19 mooring was recovered on November 13. Limited inter-comparison between ship and buoys were performed on this cruise. This report describes these operations and the pre-cruise buoy preparations. Other operations during PC-21-07 consisted of one CTD cast near the Meridional Overturning Variability Experiment (MOVE) subsurface mooring array MOVE 1-14. MOVE is designed to monitor the integrated deep meridional flow in the tropical North Atlantic.

Description: Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant No. NA19OAR4320074.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Clayson, C. A., Edson, J. B., Paget, A., Graham, R., & Greenwood, B. Effects of rainfall on the atmosphere and the ocean during spurs-2. Oceanography, 32(2), (2019):86-97, doi: 10.5670/oceanog.2019.216.

Description: The salinity variability of the upper ocean is influenced by surface heat, momentum, and freshwater fluxes, which are in turn affected by atmospheric conditions. It is necessary to accurately measure these surface fluxes within their atmospheric environment to understand the linkages between rain events and the resulting upper-ocean salinity balance that occurs at cloud scales. We describe a comprehensive set of atmospheric and oceanic data collected during the second Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study (SPURS-2) experiment in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. These measurements included direct estimates of heat, moisture, and momentum fluxes using direct covariance flux systems on R/V Roger Revelle and a 3 m discus buoy. These are the first successful direct measurements of evaporation from a buoy over an extended period. The atmospheric moisture budget is estimated from a combination of data, including measured freshwater fluxes, upper air sounding data, and satellite data. This analysis reconfirms the important role of moisture convergence beneath the Intertropical Convergence Zone in this region. We perform an analysis of the near-surface vertical salinity structure and its relationship to these surface fluxes, highlighting the roles of stabilization by solar insolation and precipitation and the effects of rainfall on mixing of the upper ocean.

Description: This research was supported by NASA under grants NNX15AF70G and NNX15AG20G.