Autonomous Ocean Flux Buoy 15

AOFB 15 entered open water as it drifted through Fram Strait, on about 26 October 2008. Additional information about the NPS AOFB program, including real-time data from active buoys, is available at: oc.nps.edu/~stanton/fluxbuoy The flux package data set is provided in Matlab and NetCDF file formats. Each file contains the following variables: time - Time in YYYDDD format from 1900 (days) depth - Depth from surface of ice cover, positive up (m) latitude - Latitude (degrees) longitude - Longitude (degrees) u - Velocity, x-component (m/s) v - Velocity, y-component (m/s) T - Temperature (deg C) S - Salinity (psu) uw - Kinematic Vertical Momentum Flux, x-component (m/s)^2 vw - Kinematic Vertical Momentum Flux, y-component (m/s)^2 wT - Kinematic Vertical Heat Flux (K m/s) wS - Vertical Salt Flux (psu m/s) q2 - Fluctuation Kinetic Energy (m/s)^2 Velocities are reported in the instrument coordinate system of the flux package acoustic travel-time current meter.

The fluctuation kinetic energy variable is useful for identifying time periods when the buoy is in open water and flux estimates are contaminated by surface-wave motions.