Meetings: Documents

Analysis of STS/PAL Float Data in SPURS-2 Study Area
[24-May-2017] Yang, J., Riser, S., and Asher, W.
Presented at the Global Ocean Salinity and the Water Cycle Workshop
Rain over the ocean is a central process in the global freshwater cycle. For SPURS-2 study area in the ITCZ, the annually averaged precipitation is approximately 10 mm dy-1, with daily values tripling during the rainy season. Rainfall in this area is also known to be characterized by high spatial and temporal variability. Detailed study of the effect of rain on salinity requires in situ measurements of rain rate and total accumulation that capture this short-term, long-term, and spatial variability in the rain field to achieve the goals of SPURS-2. A total of 15 Argo profiling floats were deployed for SPURS-2 in the time period of Aug. 31 - Sep. 14, 2016. Among them, ten are regular US Argo floats and the other five are US Argo floats equipped with Surface Temperature and Salinity (STS) and Passive Aquatic Listener (PAL) sensors. The PAL sensors provide a continuous time series of rainfall and wind speed estimated from ocean ambient sound with a spatial footprint of 1 km and a temporal resolution of 1 min when the floats are at their park depth of 1000 m. In this talk, a preliminary analysis of the Argo and PAL data from the SPURS-2 deployment from Sep. 2016 to April 2017 are presented. In general, the PAL wind speed is consistent with wind speed measured by surface anemometers on the central mooring, while rainfall exhibits strong spatial variability. Salinity and temperature profiles from the 15 floats are presented as well to investigate their correlation with rainfall. (Work supported by NASA.)

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