ATLAS/TOPEX POSEIDON MOORINGS - INVERTED ECHO SOUNDER DATA (2S, 154E; 2S, 164E)

E. Katz (U. of Columbia, USA)

Announced availability: 1 May 1994

Data Access

The Univ. of Columbia Inverted Echo Sounder (IES) data are available from the COARE Moored Data Archive at NOAA/PMEL's Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean Array (TAO) Project Office, (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/coare/coare-data.html), along with other COARE mooring data.

The original data have also been archived at NOAA's National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) in Silver Spring, Maryland (http://www.nodc.noaa.gov), the repository for COARE oceanographic data, and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado (http://dss.ucar.edu/pub/toga_coare/), the site of the TOGA COARE deep archive.

Background

During the verification phase of the TOPEX/POSEIDON radar altimeter mission a rigorous open-ocean validation experiment was conducted in the western equatorial Pacific ocean. From August/September 1992 to February/March 1993, two TOGA-TAO moorings at 2S 156E (1739m depth) and 2S, 164.4E (4400 m depth) were enhanced with additional temperature, conductivity and pressure sensors to measure precisely the dynamic height from the surface to the bottom at 5 min intervals directly beneath two TOPEX/POSEIDON crossovers.

Enhanced instrumentation on the Atlas mooring at 2S 156E included 16 Seacats (SB-16, two with pressure sensors), 5 MTRs, and 1 Aanderaa recorder (pressure and temperature). At 2S 164.4E, 11 Seacats (two with pressure sensors), 12 MTRs, and 2 Aanderaa recorders were added.

Enhanced bottom measurements were made within one mile of each Atlas. O ne Bottom Pressure Recorder (BPR) and two IES were located near 2S 156E and one BPR and one IES near 2S 164.4E.

The data contained in this file are from two IESs, TPW (2S, 156E) and TPE (2S, 164.4E). (The station names derive from sites corresponding to trajectory intersections from the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite. TPW (TPE) at crossing of pass numbers 086 and 251 (060 and 225)).

Data File Information

Number of data files: 2 (tpe.dat, tpw.dat)
Dataset format: ASCII. The format is in the NODC format for pressure gauge data (file type FT-017) adapted for IES data. Data obtained with hourly, 24-burst samples, analyzed for "best" return and then interpolated onto the hour.
Data volume: 300 MB

Data Example 

1TPE INVERTED ECHO SOUNDER 001
         1TPE         1 DEPLOYMENT: 002
         1TPE TPE 2 01.0S 164 24.4E 003
         1TPE  FROM 92/08/26 06:00Z 004
         1TPE   TO  93/03/22 18:00Z 005
         1TPE MOST SIG. DIG.        006
         1TPE  5.79 REMOVED THEN    007
         1TPE  CONV'D TO MILLISECS  008
         1TPE  MS = (TT-5.79)*1000  009
         1TPE  2-WAY TRAVEL TIME    010
         1TPE REC 2 DEPTH UNCORRCTD 011
         2TPE 02010S164244W0440105005
         4TPE  9208260600    658      1
         4TPE  9208260700     23      2
         4TPE  9208260800   -523      3
         4TPE  9208260900   -357      4
         4TPE  9208261000   -830      5
For more information, please contact:

Eli Katz
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory
University of Columbia
Palisades, NY 10964
USA

email: ejk@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
Phone: (914) 365-8539
FAX: (914) 365-0718

Reference

Gourdeau, L., J. Picaut, M.J. Langlade, A. Busalacchi, E. Hackert, M. McPhaden, P. Freitag, F. Gonzalez, M. Eble, R. Weller, 1995: Traitements des donnees pour la validation en plein ocean du niveau de la mer de POPEX/POSEIDON dans le Pacifique equatorial ouest. Notes Techniques, Sciences de la Mer, Oceanographie Physique, No 12, ORSTOM, Centre de Noumea, 43 pp.

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