Sally Ride is tracking tidal bores and internal solitary waves (ISWs) on the Oceano array today and through the night on a small southern box between the 20 and 50m isobaths. Our box coordinates are
SRSW 34 58.241, 120 44.448
SRSE 34 57.912, 120 41.031
SRNE 34 58.795, 120 40.086
SRNW 34 59.211, 120 44.251
After a tumultuous night of lightning and rain we were greeted by an inspiring sun rise.
Our survey instrumentation includes a CTD bow chain down to 20-m depth, a bow mounted IR camera and radiometer, a pole mounted 500 kHz ADCP, 120 and 200 kHz echo sounders, and a vertical microstructure profiler (VMP).
The observations are revealing interesting internal structure of the ISWs, as seen by the echo sounders.
Also, significant lateral small-scale variability of the waves is seen by this opposing and following cross section of an ISW wave train. The opposing and following transects are separated by 100-200m along the wave crest.
The waves appear to be coming from both the WNW and WSW and are traveling at an average speed of 25 to 30 cm/s. VMP and Bow chain results forth coming!