MODE - 1 FIELD EXPERIMENT 



28 



AIRCRAFT: MASS TRANSPORT MEASURING 

 FLOATS, XBT TEMPERATURE PROFILES 



SHIPS: CTD & XBT 

 PROFILES, DATA 

 RADIOED TO & 

 FROM SHORE 



UGRANGIAN 

 SUBSURFACE 

 FLOATS TRACKED 

 BY SOFAR 



SURFACE BUOYS 

 EULERIAN ARRAYS 



SOFAR ARRAY. DATA 

 TO SHORE 



ELECTRODES MEASURING 

 GEOMAGNETIC ELECTROKINETIC 

 POTENTIAL, MONITOR VARIATIONS 

 OF MEAN FLOW 



Figure 11. MODE-1 Field Experiment. 



RECOVERABLE LAUNCHERS TRACK 

 EXPENDABLE UPWARD-PROFILING FLOATS 



directed toward resolving the velocity fields and density fields on the 

 time scale of days to months and a space scale of 10 to 200 kilometers. The 

 theoretical program will involve evaluation of a variety of mathematical 

 models designed to test kinematical hypotheses about the mesoscale mo- 

 tions and to explore their dynamics and their interactions with other scales. 

 Numerical modeling and experimentation will be of primary importance in 

 relating theoretical ideas to experimental design, in the testing of hypoth- 

 eses, and in data interpretation. 



Eddy Processes and the General Circulation 



The concept of MODE is founded on the need for understanding the 

 general circulation of the oceans, implying the identification of the most 

 important quantities which are conserved physically (e.g., vorticity, mass, 

 heat, and energy) and the discovery of the processes of their conservation 

 in the mean, (e.g., the identification of external and internal sources and 

 sinks, and the scales and mechanisms of transport and transfer). It is 

 highly probable that mesoscale eddy processes (quasi-geostrophic, low fre- 

 quency motions of intermediate scales) are of vital importance. Yet ob- 

 servations of these processes are almost nonexistent. 



Considerable progress in understanding the ocean circulation in terms 

 of steady-state models, analytical and numerical, has been made during 

 the past 25 years. Successes in accounting in these terms for the spatial 

 distribution and general structure of the major gyres, the existence and 



