SECTION 4. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN 



4.1 PREVIOUS STUDIES 



Recent oceanographic studies have utilized part of the proposed MAREX 

 sensor array to address limited aspects of local marine productivity on 

 the east coast of the United States. For example, Superflux, a joint 

 NASA-NOAA study, was a prototype experiment at the mouth of the Chesa- 

 peake Bay to demonstrate the use of remote aircraft sensing in studying 

 the effects of estuarine outwelling on shelf ecosystems (Figure 2-2). 

 This project consisted of three interactive aircraft-ship deployments 

 conducted during 1980 to study the Chesapeake Bay plume's seasonal 

 interaction with the adjacent continental shelf region (Campbell and 

 Thomas, 1981). A second nearshore experiment, conducted on Nantucket 

 Shoals in May 1981, used the same set of remote sensors (Lidar and miro- 

 wave radiometer) to investigate the coupling of biological and physical 

 processes in a topographically controlled upwelling system. The air- 

 craft, interfacing with ships, provided near real-time data to enable 

 NASA-, N0AA-, and DOE-supported investigators to update sampling plans 

 for the shipboard measurements of biological rate processes (primary 

 production, grazing, etc.). A series of current meter moorings were 

 deployed in both experiments to measure the advective and diffusive 

 fluxes. The synopticity provided by the aircraft sensors, both of 

 physical and biological properties, together with measurements of 

 vertical properties, chemistry, and biological rates using conventional 

 shipboard technique over the appropriate time scales, will permit a more 

 complete analysis of the dynamics of both the Chesapeake Bay and 

 Nantucket Shoals local system. 



Off the U.S. west coast, fishery programs which now depend mainly on the 

 Coastal Zone Color Scanner involve monitoring of the distribution of the 

 pelagic fish spawn and correlating the spawn with temperature and color 

 imagery of an 85,000 square mile region of the California Current. This 

 research allows delineation of preferred habitats for anchovy spawning, 

 survival, and recruitment. Color imagery shows areas of high 

 productivity and convergence, and allows water type identification both 



4-1 



