Instrumentation for Coastal Transport Studies.

Abstract : To improve the capabilities of the Coastal Studies Institute personnel to collect data on the full three-dimensional structure of the water column from ships of opportunity, we requested assistance in acquiring three pieces of instrumentation: an acoustic doppler current profiler, an attitude and position determination system and a portable bench salinometer. All three pieces were purchased and deployed on a field project in the Strait of Bab-al-Mandab and the Southern Red Sea. This project is designed to determine the annual cycle of mass, salt and heat transport through the strait, determine factors governing the outflow of deep Red Sea water through the strait, determine factors governing the scale-dependent forcing of inflow and outflow, and determine the hydrographic characteristics of water transiting the strait.