O’Brien
Jeff
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Jeff
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ArticleCirculation in the vicinity of Mackenzie Canyon from a year-long mooring array(Elsevier, 2020-07-04) Lin, Peigen ; Pickart, Robert S. ; Fissel, David ; Ross, Ed ; Kasper, Jeremy L. ; Bahr, Frank B. ; Torres, Daniel J. ; O’Brien, Jeff ; Borg, Keath ; Melling, Humfrey ; Wiese, Francis K.Data from a five-mooring array extending from the inner shelf to the continental slope in the vicinity of Mackenzie Canyon, Beaufort Sea are analyzed to elucidate the components of the boundary current system and their variability. The array, part of the Marine Arctic Ecosystem Study (MARES), was deployed from October 2016 to September 2017. Four distinct currents were identified: an eastward-directed flow adjacent to the coast; a westward-flowing, surface-intensified current centered on the outer-shelf; a bottom-intensified shelfbreak jet flowing to the east; and a recirculation at the base of the continental slope within the canyon. The shelf current transports −0.120.03 Sv in the mean and is primarily wind-driven. The response is modulated by the presence of ice, with little-to-no signal during periods of nearly-immobile ice cover and maximum response when there is partial ice cover. The shelfbreak jet transports 0.030.02 Sv in the mean, compared to 0.080.02 Sv measured upstream in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea over the same time period. The loss of transport is consistent with a previous energetics analysis and the lack of Pacific-origin summer water downstream. The recirculation in the canyon appears to be the result of local dynamics whereby a portion of the westward-flowing southern limb of the Beaufort Gyre is diverted up the canyon across isobaths. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the low-frequency variability of the recirculation is correlated with the wind-stress curl in the Canada Basin, which drives the Beaufort gyre.
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Technical ReportAt Sea Test 2 deployment cruise : cruise 475 on board R/V Oceanus September 22 – 26, 2011 Woods Hole –Woods Hole, MA(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2011-10) Weller, Robert A. ; Lund, John M. ; von der Heydt, Keith ; Palanza, Matthew ; Lerner, Steven A. ; Scholz, Tim ; Begler, Christian ; Siddal, Gregg ; Ostrom, William M. ; Newhall, Kris ; Bouchard, Paul R. ; McMonagle, Kathleen ; Jamieson, Eric ; Petitt, Robert A. ; O’Brien, Jeff ; Cook, GaryThe R/V Oceanus, on Cruise 475, carried out the deployment of three moorings for the Coastal and Global Scale Nodes (CGSN) Implementing Organization of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative. These three moorings are prototypes of the moorings to be used by CGSN at the Pioneer, Endurance, and Global Arrays. Oceanus departed from Woods Hole, Massachusetts on September 22, 2011 and steamed south to the location of the mooring deployments on the shelf break. Over three days, September 23-25, Oceanus surveyed the bottom at the planned mooring sites, deployed the moorings, and carried out on site verification of the functioning of the moorings and moored hardware. Oceanus returned to Woods Hole on September 26, 2011.
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ArticleAXIS—an Autonomous Expendable Instrument System(American Meteorological Society, 2017-12-28) Fratantoni, David M. ; O’Brien, Jeff ; Flagg, Charles Noel ; Rossby, H. ThomasExpendable bathythermographs (XBT) to profile upper-ocean temperatures from vessels in motion have been in use for some 50 years now. Developed originally for navy use, they were soon adapted by oceanographers to map out upper-ocean thermal structure and its space–-time variability from both research vessels and merchant marine vessels in regular traffic. These activities continue today. This paper describes a new technology—the Autonomous Expendable Instrument System (AXIS)—that has been developed to provide the capability to deploy XBT probes on a predefined schedule, or adaptively in response to specific events without the presence of an observer on board. AXIS is a completely self-contained system that can hold up to 12 expendable probes [XBTs, XCTDs, expendable sound velocimeter (XSV)] in any combination. A single-board Linux computer keeps track of what probes are available, takes commands from ashore via Iridium satellite on what deployment schedule to follow, and records and forwards the probe data immediately with a time stamp and the GPS position. This paper provides a brief overview of its operation, capabilities, and some examples of how it is improving coverage along two lines in the Atlantic.
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Technical ReportAt Sea Test 2 recovery cruise : Cruise 206 on board R/V Knorr April 10 - 15, 2012 Woods Hole - Woods Hole, MA(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2012-06) Weller, Robert A. ; Lund, John M. ; O’Brien, Jeff ; Kemp, John N. ; Kostel, Ken ; Waldorf, Walt ; Holm, Chris ; Risien, Craig ; Matthewson, Michael ; Trowbridge, John H.The R/V Knorr, on Cruise 206, carried out the recovery of three moorings for the Coastal and Global Scale Nodes (CGSN) Implementing Organization of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative. These three moorings are prototypes of the moorings to be used by CGSN at the Pioneer, Endurance, and Global Arrays. Knorr departed from Woods Hole, Massachusetts on April 10, 2012 and steamed south to the location of the mooring deployments on the shelf break. Over five days, April 10-15, Knorr surveyed the bottom at the planned mooring sites, recovered the moorings, and carried out preliminary investigations of mechanical and electrical functionality on the recovered moorings and mooring hardware, including observations of biofouling and corrosion. Knorr returned to Woods Hole on April 15, 2012.
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ArticleThe microbiological drivers of temporally dynamic Dimethylsulfoniopropionate cycling processes in Australian coastal shelf waters(Frontiers Media, 2022-06-15) O’Brien, James ; McParland, Erin L. ; Bramucci, Anna R. ; Ostrowski, Martin ; Siboni, Nachshon ; Ingleton, Timothy ; Brown, Mark V. ; Levine, Naomi M. ; Laverock, Bonnie ; Petrou, Katherina ; Seymour, JustinThe organic sulfur compounds dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) play major roles in the marine microbial food web and have substantial climatic importance as sources and sinks of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Seasonal shifts in the abundance and diversity of the phytoplankton and bacteria that cycle DMSP are likely to impact marine DMS (O) (P) concentrations, but the dynamic nature of these microbial interactions is still poorly resolved. Here, we examined the relationships between microbial community dynamics with DMS (O) (P) concentrations during a 2-year oceanographic time series conducted on the east Australian coast. Heterogenous temporal patterns were apparent in chlorophyll a (chl a) and DMSP concentrations, but the relationship between these parameters varied over time, suggesting the phytoplankton and bacterial community composition were affecting the net DMSP concentrations through differential DMSP production and degradation. Significant increases in DMSP were regularly measured in spring blooms dominated by predicted high DMSP-producing lineages of phytoplankton (Heterocapsa, Prorocentrum, Alexandrium, and Micromonas), while spring blooms that were dominated by predicted low DMSP-producing phytoplankton (Thalassiosira) demonstrated negligible increases in DMSP concentrations. During elevated DMSP concentrations, a significant increase in the relative abundance of the key copiotrophic bacterial lineage Rhodobacterales was accompanied by a three-fold increase in the gene, encoding the first step of DMSP demethylation (dmdA). Significant temporal shifts in DMS concentrations were measured and were significantly correlated with both fractions (0.2–2 μm and >2 μm) of microbial DMSP lyase activity. Seasonal increases of the bacterial DMSP biosynthesis gene (dsyB) and the bacterial DMS oxidation gene (tmm) occurred during the spring-summer and coincided with peaks in DMSP and DMSO concentration, respectively. These findings, along with significant positive relationships between dsyB gene abundance and DMSP, and tmm gene abundance with DMSO, reinforce the significant role planktonic bacteria play in producing DMSP and DMSO in ocean surface waters. Our results highlight the highly dynamic nature and myriad of microbial interactions that govern sulfur cycling in coastal shelf waters and further underpin the importance of microbial ecology in mediating important marine biogeochemical processes.
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ArticleThe MOSAiC Distributed Network: Observing the coupled Arctic system with multidisciplinary, coordinated platforms(University of California Press, 2024-05-10) Rabe, Benjamin ; Cox, Christopher J. ; Fang, Ying-Chih ; Goessling, Helge ; Granskog, Mats A. ; Hoppmann, Mario ; Hutchings, Jennifer K. ; Krumpen, Thomas ; Kuznetsov, Ivan ; Lei, Ruibo ; Li, Tao ; Maslowski, Wieslaw ; Nicolaus, Marcel ; Perovich, Don ; Persson, Ola ; Regnery, Julia ; Rigor, Ignatius ; Shupe, Matthew D. ; Sokolov, Vladimir T. ; Spreen, Gunnar ; Stanton, Tim ; Watkins, Daniel M. ; Blockley, Ed ; Buenger, H. Jakob ; Cole, Sylvia T. ; Fong, Allison A. ; Haapala, Jari ; Heuze, Celine ; Hoppe, Clara J. M. ; Janout, Markus A. ; Jutila, Arttu ; Katlein, Christian ; Krishfield, Richard A. ; Lin, Long ; Ludwig, Valentin ; Morgenstern, Anne ; O’Brien, Jeff ; Zurita, Alejandra Quintanilla ; Rackow, Thomas ; Riemann-Campe, Kathrin ; Rohde, Jan ; Shaw, William J. ; Smolyanitsky, Vasily ; Solomon, Amy ; Sperling, Anneke ; Tao, Ran ; Toole, John M. ; Tsamados, Michel ; Zhu, Jialiang ; Zuo, GuangyuCentral Arctic properties and processes are important to the regional and global coupled climate system. The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) Distributed Network (DN) of autonomous ice-tethered systems aimed to bridge gaps in our understanding of temporal and spatial scales, in particular with respect to the resolution of Earth system models. By characterizing variability around local measurements made at a Central Observatory, the DN covers both the coupled system interactions involving the ocean-ice-atmosphere interfaces as well as three-dimensional processes in the ocean, sea ice, and atmosphere. The more than 200 autonomous instruments (“buoys”) were of varying complexity and set up at different sites mostly within 50 km of the Central Observatory. During an exemplary midwinter month, the DN observations captured the spatial variability of atmospheric processes on sub-monthly time scales, but less so for monthly means. They show significant variability in snow depth and ice thickness, and provide a temporally and spatially resolved characterization of ice motion and deformation, showing coherency at the DN scale but less at smaller spatial scales. Ocean data show the background gradient across the DN as well as spatially dependent time variability due to local mixed layer sub-mesoscale and mesoscale processes, influenced by a variable ice cover. The second case (May–June 2020) illustrates the utility of the DN during the absence of manually obtained data by providing continuity of physical and biological observations during this key transitional period. We show examples of synergies between the extensive MOSAiC remote sensing observations and numerical modeling, such as estimating the skill of ice drift forecasts and evaluating coupled system modeling. The MOSAiC DN has been proven to enable analysis of local to mesoscale processes in the coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean system and has the potential to improve model parameterizations of important, unresolved processes in the future.