FY 1990

PROTEUS—Profile Telemetry of Upper Ocean Currents

McPhaden, M.J., H.B. Milburn, A.I. Nakamura, and A.J. Shepherd

In MTS '90 Proceedings, Marine Technology Society, Washington, D.C., 26–28 September 1990, 353–357 (1990)

In this paper we describe the development of a real-time capability for satellite transmission of acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data from deep water surface moorings. This development, which we call PROTEUS (PROfile TElemetry of Upper ocean currentS), consists of a downward-looking, surface buoy-mounted 153.6 kHz RDI ADCP with an Argos satellite telemetry link. Our efforts have been motivated by a need for real-time velocity profiles in support of short-term climate studies of El Niño and the Southern Oscillation. The first PROTEUS mooring was successfully deployed in April 1990 at 0°, 140°W as part of NOAA's EPOCS program. We describe the mooring configuration, the Argos data format, and the velocity data itself from the first 6 weeks of deployment. We also present a preliminary intercomparison of PROTEUS data from the first depth bin below the surface with data collected in real-time from a Vector Measuring Current Meter moored 17 km to the east of the PROTEUS mooring.