Accuracy in Mooring Motion Temperature Corrections

Abstract

Abstract Moored temperature sensors, whether fixed or profiling, routinely need to be corrected to remove the signals associated with the vertical motion of the sensors when the moorings “blow over” in strong flow events (for profiling sensors the problems occur only at the upper end of the profiling range). Hydrographic data are used to estimate the accuracy with which moored temperature sensors in the Gulf Stream can be corrected for mooring motion aliasing using standard correction techniques, and the implications for other ocean regions are discussed. Comparison with hydrographic data and coincident inverted echo sounder (IES) data from the Synoptic Ocean Prediction Experiment (SYNOP) shows that the errors inherent in mooring motion corrected temperatures during significant pressure deflections are potentially 2–3 times as large as previous estimates based on a smaller dataset of observations in the Kuroshio at approximately the same latitude in the Pacific. For sensors with a nominal level of 400 dbar and a typical root-mean-square pressure deflection of 150 dbar, accuracy limits of up to 0.7°C on the “corrected” temperatures are applicable. Deeper sensors typically have smaller accuracy bounds. There is a suggestion that the presence of a mode water layer near the nominal depth of the shallowest sensor can result in much higher errors in mooring motion corrected temperature data. The accuracy estimates derived herein should apply not only to moorings deployed in the Gulf Stream but also to all currents that exhibit similar velocity amplitudes and thermal gradients such as the Agulhas or Kuroshio.