A preliminary description of the CODE-1 field program

Abstract

A Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (CODE) has been undertaken to identify and study the important dynamical processes which govern the wind-driven motion of coastal water over the continental shelf. The initial effort in this four-year research program is to obtain high-quality data sets of all the relevant physical variables needed to construct accurate kinematic and dynamic descriptions of the response of shelf water to strong wind forcing in the 2 to 10-day band. A series of two small-scale, densely-instrumented field experiments of four-month duration (CODE-1 and CODE-2) is designed to explore and to determine the kinematics and momentum and heat balances of the local wind-driven flow over a region of the northern California shelf which is characterized by both relatively simple bottom topography and large wind stress events in both winter and summer. A more lightly-instrumented, long-term, large-scale component has been designed to help separate the local wind-driven response in the region of the small-scale experiments from motions generated either offshore by the California Current system or in some distant region along the coast, and also to help determine the seasonal cycles of the atmospheric forcing, water structure, and coastal currents over the northern California shelf. This report presents an overview of the CODE program and a preliminary description of the observational programs conducted during CODE-1. The various logical components of CODE are identified and described, and their relationship to the entire effort is discussed. The report itself represents a minor revision of the original cover proposal submitted to NSF in late 1979 by the principal investigators and is not a comprehensive guide nor does it contain any descriptions of the initial results from CODE-1. Scientific and engineering results will be presented elsewhere in individual technical and scientific reports. CODE has been jointly conceived by the following principal investigators (who collectively make up the CODE group): J. Allen , R. Beardsley, W. Brown, 0. Cacchione, R. Davis, D. Drake , C. Friehe, W. Grant, A. Huyer, J. Irish, M. Janopaul, A. Williams and C. Winant.