Fisheries Oceanography in Coastal Alabama (FOCAL) Mooring Data (Fall 2015)

The oceanographic community routinely collects time-series data of hydrographic properties and water current velocity of the marine environment. Such data are essential for establishing baseline characteristics of marine and estuarine ecosystems. These data are from a small coastal ocean observing system 25 kilometers southwest of the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama (30.0902 N 88.2116 W), that the Dauphin Island Sea Lab has been operating. The overarching goal of the proposed research was to identify and determine the kinematic and dynamic transport processes that govern the distribution, dispersion, dilution, and fate of oil-derived substances in Alabama's coastal waters. As such, the project examined the flow field characteristics on the Alabama shelf from both the Eulerian perspective. The data were collected between 28 July and 09 December, 2015. The instruments during that time period were deployed on 28 July, replaced on 14 Oct. Instrument data have been combined to produce separate data files: temperature data (five thermistors, and two CTDs (two moored)) and velocity data (upward looking ADCP).海洋学研究团队通常会常态化采集海洋环境的水文要素与水流流速时序数据。此类数据对于确立海洋与河口生态系统的基准特征至关重要。本次数据集源自美国阿拉巴马州莫比尔湾河口西南25公里处的小型近岸海洋观测系统（坐标：30.0902°N，88.2116°W），该系统由多芬岛海洋实验室（Dauphin Island Sea Lab）负责运维。本项拟开展研究的核心目标，是识别并解析调控阿拉巴马州近岸水域内油类衍生污染物分布、扩散、稀释及归趋的运动学与动力学输运过程。据此，本项目从欧拉视角（Eulerian perspective）对阿拉巴马陆架的流场特征展开了分析。数据采集时段为2015年7月28日至2015年12月9日，观测仪器于当日布放，并于同年10月14日完成更换。已对仪器观测数据进行整合，生成两类独立数据文件：温度数据（含5个热敏电阻与2台锚定CTD（温盐深仪））以及流速数据（含1台向上观测的ADCP（声学多普勒流速剖面仪））。