Speaker

J. Thomas Farrar, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE)

Abstract

The Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) is a NASA Earth Ventures Suborbital investigation designed to test the hypothesis that oceanic frontogenesis and the kilometer-scale (“submesoscale”) instabilities that accompany it make important contributions to vertical exchange of climate and biological variables in the upper ocean. These processes have been difficult to resolve in observations, making model validation challenging. S-MODE was conducted offshore of California, and it combines novel aircraft remote-sensing techniques with coordinated measurements from ships and a fleet of uncrewed vehicles and other measurement platforms to study submesoscale ocean dynamics (scales less than about 10 km) and their contribution to vertical transport in the upper ocean. Oceanic fronts and the submesoscale instabilities that develop on them are thought to be an important factor for vertical transport in the upper ocean, but these processes have been difficult to resolve in observations and models. Team members from more than 16 institutions collected an extensive data set of oceanographic and atmospheric measurements with coordinated sampling from three research aircraft, a research vessel, and dozens of uncrewed surface and subsurface platforms. This talk will present an overview of the experiment and will discuss our team’s efforts to make comprehensive measurements of submesoscale-resolving ocean surface currents and and inferences about vertical velocity and vertical transport in the upper ocean.