Our first peek at mooring data

We recovered our deepest mooring (MS100-T) from 100 meters first thing on Wednesday morning. The data has now been downloaded and we have two plots to share!

The figures below show temperature contours plotted over depth for several hours selected from two separate days. For those unfamiliar with the MS100-T mooring structure, the line has 26 thermisters spread over about 100 meters and have been deployed since the beginning of September.

Plotting temperature over several hours, we can see vertical oscillations of temperature on short time scales. In these plots, the vertical displacement of isotherms is around ~20-30 m at the onset of the wave and the wave period is approximately ~15 minutes. We believe these vertical displacements are caused by solitons propagating by the mooring. The data sequence shows many of these wave packets in the time record. We selected these time sequences to serve as an example.

We look forward to giving this a closer look in the coming months. For now, we have the data (high-fives all around!) and have since redeployed MS100-T successfully.

 

– Jenessa Duncombe and the R/V Oceanus team