Coastal Predictive Skill Experiment 1999 Goals

Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Modeling System Technical Goals

1. Acquire operational Navy COAMPS atmospheric forecasts (27 km resolution) as one source of atmospheric forcing for the ocean model.
2. Configure the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to the Middle Atlantic Bight for high resolution (4 km or better) forecasts as a second source of atmospheric forcing for the ocean model.
3. Evaluate COAMPS and RAMS forecasts at Tuckerton with an enhanced meteorological observation array.
4. Implement a new turbulent closure scheme in the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) that uses the KPP closure modified for shallow water to include both surface and bottom boundary layers and combined wave and current bottom boundary layers.
5. Develop new assimilation modules for
   • CODAR vector currents and radial currents,
   • subsurface mean currents along shipboard/AUV transects,
   • satellite sea surface temperatures, and
   • subsurface T/S from numerous sources.
6. Provide locally generated atmospheric forecasts and ensemble ocean forecasts in real time for adaptive sampling during the month of July.
7. Develop 3-d visualization products to aid in interpretation and mission planning.

Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Modeling System Scientific Goals

1. Evaluate RAMS performance in a coastal environment.
2. Determine the effect of high resolution (in space and time) atmospheric forecasts on the ocean forcing.
3. Determine the extent of the ocean feedback on the atmospheric forecasts.
4. Determine the effect of coastal upwelling on the 3-d structure of the seabreeze.
5. Evaluate the new version of ROMS in a coastal environment, including the influence of different assimilation datasets and the sensitivity to turbulent closure.
6. Evaluate the individual components of the turbulent closure model.
7. Examine the dynamics of the offshore surface jet and the nearshore subsurface jet observed during coastal upwelling events.
8. Examine the ability of the upwelling centers to concentrate nutrients and phytoplankton and determine the residence times of particles within the upwelling centers.

Adaptive Sampling Technical Goals

1. Improved cloud detection for real-time AVHRR SST data.
2. Adding SeaWiFS data to the real-time datastream, processed with both improved NASA and NRL algorithms.
3. Deploy additional meteorological sensors, including additional sensors on the met tower, a shore based SODAR wind profiler, and an offshore meteorological buoy.
4. Redeploy CODAR and test new algorithms for radial currents, variable resolution current fields, winds and waves.
5. Develop automated response algorithms for LEO nodes.
6. Deploy 12 autonomous nodes, each equipped with 8 thermisters to provide real-time subsurface assimilation data.
7. Build and deploy a new optical node.
8. Develop real-time telemetry systems for survey vessels that is capable of displaying shipboard data on shore in real-time, can be used to transmit data files to shore, and can be used to access the World Wide Web data products while the vessels are at sea.
9. Improve performance of towed instrumentation (SWATH ADCP and undulating CTD) to improve data coverage.
10. Integrate new sensors to optical profiling systems, including TRSB, HS6, Hydrorad, LISST.
11. Add real-time optical sensors to weather buoy.
12. Add logging oxygen sensors to weather buoy, optical node.
13. Deploy 2 internally logging ADCPs offshore capable of continuous sampling for the a 6 week deployment.
14. Add Mode 5 capabilities to ADCPs on the LEO node and REMUS.
15. Use REMUS Survey vehicles as the primary near real-time current monitoring system for assimilation, freeing the shipboard systems for adaptive sampling.
16. Use REMUS Survey vehicle to map specific regions of ocean floor.
17. Test Bioluminesce REMUS
18. Use REMUS turbulence vehicle for targeted turbulence sampling.
19. Deploy Webb Multi-trip Langrangian profiler tested last year in the offshore and the nearshore jets.
20. First field test of Webb Coastal Electric Glider.

Feature-Dependent Adaptive Sampling Scientific Goals

1. Initial Stage of Upwelling
   • Is the cold water breaking the surface upwelled from below or is it advected in from the north?
   • What is the source of the material in this cold water?
2. Upwelling Center Development
   • When does the offshore surface jet begin to meander?
   • When does the nearshore subsurface jet appear?
   • Is local bottom resuspension and transport ever relevant to the optical loads.
3. Nearshore subsurface jet
   • What is the source region?
   • Does it turn and flow back into the upwelling center?
   • What is the nature of the material in the jet?
   • What is the health of the phytoplankton population?
   • Can you see the jet with a color satellite?
4. Offshore Jet and Convergence Zones
   • What is the velocity structure of the jet?
   • What is the scale (space and time) of the convergence zones?
   • Are these affected by the inertial wave field?
   • Do the convergence zones accumulate material?
   • What is the biological significance of this material?
   • What are the turbulence levels in the vicinity of the front?
   • Is the biological material near the jet entrained?
5. Downwelling
   • What is the mean flow during downwelling?
   • During downwelling, is the nearshore thermocline compressed?
   • What happens the the turbulence levels on either side of a downwelling front?
   • Does the thermocline compression impact the reflectance nearshore. and is there biological response.
   • What happens to the material accumulated in the upwelling center?
   • Does the phytoplankton fall out of suspension and at what rate?
   • Can the observations explain the historically observed drop in DO?
6. Mullica River Plume
   • What is the optical significance of the Mullica River Plume?
   • Is there a surface slick that can bias the satellite imagery?
   • Can a surface slick extend out to the LEO Nodes and bias the in situ validation data?

Discrete Sample Biological/Chemical Validation Data

1. Phytoplankton pigmentation High pressure Liquid Chromatography
2. Microscopic samples for species identifications
3. Nutrient samples (nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, ammonia)
4. Total Suspended Matter
5. Particulate Organic Carbon
6. Dissolved Organic Carbon
7. Particulate Metal Chemistry
8. Dissolved Oxygen, via Winkler titrations
9. Filter pad absorption (particulate, dissolved, detrital, phytoplankton)
10. Nitrous Oxide
11. Fluorescence excitation/emission matrices for dissolved fraction
12. Quantum Yield for Stable Charge Seperations at Photosystem II (Fv/Fm)