FASINEX (Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment) moored instrumentation

Abstract

In 1986, FASINEX, a Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment, a multi-investigator cooperative experiment, was conducted to study the role of horizontal variability in air-sea interaction in the persistent front formed in the subtropical convergence zone south of Bermuda. Aimed at investigating all aspects of the atmospheric and oceanic variables related to the formation and maintenance of the front, an array of meteorological and current meter moorings was deployed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Buoy Group in 5400 meters of water . Two subsurface current meter moorings were deployed in October, 1984; five surface meteorological and current meter moorings and four Profiling Current Meter (PCM) moorings were set in January 1986 . All except one PCM mooring, which was lost, were recovered in June 1986. This report discusses the extensive preparations of, and modifications to, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Buoy Group instruments placed on the five surface moorings. The equipment included 30 vector measuring current meters, ten vector averaging current meters and five vector averaging wind recorders .