Last updated: 17 Apr 2000

Data provided by:

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Subduction Experiment

An array of five surface moorings carrying meteorological and oceanographic instrumentation was deployed for a period of two years beginning in June 1991 as part of an Office of Naval Research (ONR) funded Subduction experiment. Three eight month deployments were carried out. The five mooring locations were 18°N 34°W, 18°N 22°W, 25.5°N 29°W, 33°N 22°W, and 33°N 34°W.

Two Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and three Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) moorings collected oceanographic and meteorological data, using a 3-meter discus or 2-meter toroid buoy and multiple Vector Measuring Current Meters (VMCMs), an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and Brancker temperature recorders (tpods). The surface buoys carried a Vector Averaging Wind Recorder (VAWR) and, on four of the five moorings, an Improved Meteorological Recorder (IMET) which mearsured wind speed and wind direction, sea surface temperature, air temperature, short wave radiation, barometric pressure, and relative humidity. The IMET also mearsured precipitation. The VMCMs, ADCP and tpods, placed at depths 1 m to 3500m, measured oceanic velocities and temperatures.

Surface Meteorological data from the experiment can found in the following table:

Note: Data released after the publication of the first WOCE CD ( 12 February 1998 ) are in garnet and gold.

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Brink, N.J., K.A. Moyer, R.P. Trask, and R.A. Weller, 1995: The Subduction Experiment Mooring Field Program and Data Summary. Woods Hole Oceanog. Inst. Tech. Rept., WHOI-95-08, 113 pp. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1541