ACCE Salinity Profiling ALACE floats in the Tropical Atlantic-

deployed on 6N, 11N, 13.5N, and 16N

The chart above shows the tracks of S-PALACE floats deployed from the R/V Seward Johnson on two cruises.

The floats on 6N were the first deployed (July, 1997). They are ballasted for 1000 meters and are programed to profile at fourteen day intervals. These floats profile on the way up at the end of each cycle. The easternmost float apparently had a ballasting problem with successsively deeper park depths recorded, and was last heard from in December 1997.

The floats deployed in October 1998 between 11N and 16N are all programmed to report every ten days, and ballasted for 1000 meters. These floats profile on the way down to their park depths, right after the surface drift period, so the data is ten days old when it is transmitted. The down profiling floats do a better job with the surface T/S properties, so they are preferred, despite the time lag for the data.

The ends of each submerged segment have been objectively extrapolated. Each file consists of these segments with the average drift pressure and temperature for each.

Deployments

In the following table, each column corresponds to a deployment latitude and contains all the floats deployed there ordered west to east. In some cases this corresponds to the temporal order of deployment, in others, it doesn't.

Table of ACCE floats

 6N              11N           13.5N             16N

deployed 7/97    <----------     deployed 10/98     -----------> 
float 150 float 240 float 231 float 223
float 149 float 200 float 233 float 228
float 155 float 222 float 215 float 216
float 154 float 234 float 217
float 147 float 213 float 212
float 148 float 236 float 219
float 153 float 239 float 227
float 151 float 238 float 232
float 146 float 220 float 221 float 235
float 145 float 214 float 224 float 218
float 237 float 226 float 230
float 225
float 229
 

The chart below shows the deployment positions of the floats, for reference, using Argos IDs:

 

ACCE float deployment positions

These plots last updated 4/2/99.