We use the position fixes and temperature readings from 56 Tristar-II mixed-layer drifters, in conjunction with advanced very high resolution radiometer images, to provide a description of the mesoscale variability of the flows associated with cold-water filaments in the California Current system off northern California in July 1988. We find...
Satellite infrared imagery and coastal meteorological data for March 1984 through February 1985 are used to estimate the net annual surface heat flux for the northern Gulf of California. The average annual surface heat flux for the area north of Guaymas and Santa Rosalia is estimated to be +74 W...
Continuous records of upper water column (0–150 m) temperature profiles, spectral distribution of downwelling irradiance, and phytoplankton solar-induced fluorescence at 25 m depth were obtained during the inaugural deployment of the Hawaii Air-sea Logging Experiment, A Long-term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment (HALE ALOHA) mooring, near the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) Station...
Satellite-derived pigment concentrations from the west coast time series (WCTS) are averaged into monthly mean fields over the California Current system (CCS) for the period July 1979 to June 1986. Errors caused by the scattering algorithm used in the WCTS are reduced by an empirical correction function, although winter values...
The location of the Antarctic Polar Front (PF) was mapped over a 7-year period (1987-1993) within images of satellite-deprived sea surface temperature. The mean path of the PF is strongly steered by the topographic features of the Southern Ocean. The topography places vorticity constraints on the dynamics of the PF...
Sequences of coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) images from the offshore region adjacent to Vancouver Island, Canada, have been analyzed to estimate the time rate of decorrelation of surface phytoplankton chlorophyll pigment patterns. In these high-latitude, high-pigment areas, CZCS-derived pigment estimates were lower than those obtained from ship samples by...
A Lagrangian drifter was deployed in a cold filament off northern California as part of the Coastal Transition Zone program. The drifter was equipped with an optical package (consisting of a spectroradiometer, a fluorometer, and a beam transmissometer) suspended at 8.5-m depth and a water sampler suspended at 16.3-m depth....
A drifter equipped with bio-optical sensors and an automated water sampler was deployed in the California Current as part of the coastal transition zone program to study the biological, chemical, and physical dynamics of the meandering filaments. During deployments in 1987 and 1988, measurements were made of fluorescence, downwelling irradiance,...
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) will add a significant new capability for investigating the 70% of the Earth's surface that is covered by oceans, in addition to contributing to the continuation of a decadal scale time series necessary for climate change assessment in the oceans. Sensor capabilities of particular...
We examined variability in the natural fluorescence yield of a neritic diatom, Thalassiosira weissflogii, in continuous cultures. In this species, kinetics in natural fluorescence yield over time scales less than a photoperiod were characterized by sharp decreases, occurring at irradiance intensities that presumably coincide with the onset of nonphotochemical fluorescence...