R/V Seward Johnson cruise report (SJ-9807), ACCE S-PALACE float deployments

Abstract

R/V Seward Johnson cruise 98-07 occurred between October 12 and November 5, 1998. The goal of the cruise was to deploy 30 Salinity Profiling Autonomous Lagrangian Current Explorer (S-PALACE) floats in the tropical Atlantic as part of the Atlantic Circulation and Climate Experiment (ACCE). These floats are neutrally buoyant and drift with the water in which they are deployed. They are programmed to obtain temperature and salinity profiles of the top 1000 meters of the ocean every ten days. To ascertain the validity of the float data, a CTD profile was made at the site and time of deployment of each float. The data from these floats augments data already being obtained from ten floats deployed last year. Given 40 floats in the tropical North Atlantic, reporting every 10 to 14 days with an expected operational life of 3-5 years, we hope to gather 5000 to 7000 profiles from these floats in the coming years. The temperature and salinity profiles, along with derived properties will aid in examining the mechanisms of upper ocean heat and freshwater storage. This data, combined with satellite sea surface should provide useful input to climate and weather prediction models.