WHOTS Mooring Description
The WHOTS mooring has been in place since August 2004 for consecutive periods of nearly one-year each, and it has been outfitted with a full suite of Air-Sea Interaction Meteorological (ASIMET) sensors on the buoy, and subsurface instruments from near the surface to 155 m depth.
Time period and location of WHOTS mooring deployment.
| Deployment | Deployment date | Recovery date | Station # | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WHOTS-1 | 13 August, 2004 | 25 July, 2005 | Station 50 | 22 46.00'N 157 53.90'W |
| WHOTS-2 | 28 July, 2005 | 26 June, 2006 | Station 50 | 22 46.00'N 157 53.91'W |
| WHOTS-3 | 26 June, 2006 | 28 June, 2007 | Station 50 | 22 45.99'N 157 53.99'W |
| WHOTS-4 | 25 June, 2007 | 6 June, 2008 | Station 52 | 22 40.21'N 157 57.00'W |
| WHOTS-5 | 5 June, 2008 | 16 July, 2009 | Station 50 | 22 46.01'N 157 53.83'W |
| WHOTS-6 | 10 July, 2009 | 3 August, 2010 | Station 52 | 22 39.91'N 157 56.66'W |
| WHOTS-7 | 27 July, 2010 | 11 July, 2011 | Station 50 | 22 46.00'N 157 53.99'W |
| WHOTS-8 | 7 July, 2011 | 16 June, 2012 | Station 52 | 22 40.15'N 157 57.02'W |
| WHOTS-9 | 14 June, 2012 | 14 July, 2013 | Station 50 | 22 46.07'N 157 53.95'W |
| WHOTS-10 | 11 July, 2013 | 20 July, 2014 | Station 52 | 22 40.12'N 157 57.01'W |
| WHOTS-11 | 17 July, 2014 | 14 July, 2015 | Station 50 | 22 45.98'N 157 53.96'W |
| WHOTS-12 | 13 July, 2015 | 29 June 2016 | Station 52 | 22 40.06'N 157 56.96'W |
| WHOTS-13 | 27 June, 2016 | 31 July 2017 | Station 50 | 22 47.45'N 157 54.45'W |
| WHOTS-14 | 28 July 2017 | 26 September 2018 | Station 52 | 22 40.01'N 157 57.09'W |
| WHOTS-15 | 23 September 2018 | 8 October 2019 | Station 50 | 22 46.04'N 157 53.88'W |
| WHOTS-16 | 6 October 2019 | 28 August 2021 | Station 52 | 22 40.01'N 157 56.96'W |
| WHOTS-17 | 26 August 2021 | 24 July 2022 | Station 50 | 22 46.04'N 157 53.80'W |
| WHOTS-18 | 24 July 2022 | 17 June 2023 | Station 52 | 22 40.00'N 157 56.79'W |
| WHOTS-19 | 17 June 2023 | Deployed | Station 50 | 22 46.00'N 157 53.77'W |
The surface buoy is made of Surlyn foam, and it is equipped with meteorological instrumentation including two complete ASIMET systems, measuring air and sea surface temperatures, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, incoming shortwave and longwave radiation, and precipitation. Complete surface meteorological measurements are recorded every minute, as required to compute air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater and momentum. Each ASIMET system also transmits hourly averages of the surface meteorological variables via the Argos satellite system.
An internally-logging Sea-Bird SBE-39 temperature sensor is housed in a foam collar and mounted on the outside face of the buoy hull. Vertical rails allow the foam to move up and down with the waves, so that the sensor measures the sea surface temperature within the upper 10-20 cm of the water column. In addition, two Sea-Bird MicroCATs are mounted beneath the buoy hull, for near-surface measurements of temperature and conductivity.
The subsurface instrumentation includes internally-logging Sea-Bird SeaCATs and MicroCATs with vertical separation ranging from 5-20 m to measure temperature and salinity in the upper 155 m. One or two RDI ADCPs are used to obtain current profiles across the entrainment zone and into the mixed layer. As the emphasis is on the entrainment of upper pycnocline waters, one of the ADCPs is in an upward-looking configuration at 126 m, using 4 m bins. To provide near-surface velocity (where the ADCP estimates would not be reliable) two Next Generation Vector Measuring Current Meters (NGVM) are deployed.