Profiling Palace Floats for the Northern North Atlantic—Xxxxx Xxxxx Sample Clauses

Profiling Palace Floats for the Northern North Atlantic—Xxxxx Xxxxx. We propose to continue the investigation of the seasonal to interannual variability of the heat and salt (freshwater) content of the sub-tropical and sub-polar North Atlantic using profiling autonomous (PALACE) floats. The deployment of an additional 50 floats per year in the northern North Atlantic will enable us to extend the coverage initiated during the Atlantic Climate and Circulation Experiment (ACCE). In combination with other float data from deployments funded under separate NOAA and NSF contracts and with the XBT Volunteer Observing System, we will be able to monitor and map out the depth of the mixed layer and its temperature and salinity over most of the North Atlantic. In collaboration with colleagues at MIT we will assimilate this data together with altimetry to provide estimates of the large-scale patterns of air-sea heat and freshwater fluxes. The float positions will also provide estimates of the mean circulation and eddy variability at a nominal depth of 600 m. The data from these floats will be transmitted on the GTS system so that it can also be incorporated into the National Climate Center seasonal predictions for the North Atlantic. Taken in total, the continued coverage of the North Atlantic from 1997 to 2002 will be used to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed global Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography (ARGO), which is planned to start in 2000. This data stream has been designated as one of the significant contributions to the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE).