Shelf MIxed Layer Experiment (SMILE) program description and coastal and moored array data report

Abstract

The Shelf MIxed Layer Experiment (SMILE) was designed to study the response of the oceanic surface boundary layer over the continental shelf to atmospheric forcing. The SMILE field program was conducted over the northern California shelf between Pt. Arena and Pt. Reyes from mid-November 1988 to mid-May 1989. The field program consisted of five main components: (a) a long-term moored array to obtain current, temperature, and conductivity time series observations in the upper ocean over the shelf; (b) a short-term moored instrument deployment to measure the vertical current shear and stratification in the top 6 m of the water column; (c) shipboard CTD and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) surveys over the shelf and adjacent slope to map regional water property and current distributions; (d) a long-term moored and coastal meteorological array including one sounding station to obtain time series observations of the atmospheric surface forcing and monitor the structure of the marine boundary layer; and (e) overflights with an instrumented aircraft to measure the spatial structure of the surface wind, wind stress, and heat flux fields under different atmospheric conditions. This report has two objectives: (a) to describe the SMILE field program, including overviews of the five components, and (b) to present a statistical and graphical summary of the atmospheric (wind, air temperature, pressure, relative humidity, short- and longwave radiation) and oceanic (current, water temperature, and conductivity) long-term array measurements made as part of SMILE. A more detailed description of the instrumentation used in SMILE and an assessment of instrument performance and accuracy are presented separately by Dean et al. (1991).