STACS-10 (a precursor to ACM1)

This experiment produced 14 current meter records from 3 moorings. You can view metadata and download the records by clicking on links in the table below, where each record is identified by its depth and the name of the mooring. If you do download any of the current meter records you should review the note on file format. A brief description of the experiment is available here, and you may also want to look at a map of the array to see where the moorings were. From here you can also move up one level to the list of WOCE experiments.

(If you are interested in STACS-10, you may also want to look at current records from the non-WOCE STACS-11 array, which was located off the northeast coast of Brazil. Click here to reach STACS-11.)

mooringinstr depthinstr typedatesmetadatadownload
Mooring 250 100 meters VACM 08 Oct 88 - 23 Apr 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 250 400 meters Aanderaa RCM 08 Oct 88 - 28 Feb 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 250 800 meters VACM 08 Oct 88 - 28 Jun 89 view metadata download record
Mooring 251 100 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 27 Apr 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 251 400 meters Aanderaa RCM 06 Oct 88 - 23 Feb 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 251 1200 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 19 Jun 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 251 2400 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 12 Mar 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 251 3800 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 10 Mar 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 252 100 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 17 Jul 89 view metadata download record
Mooring 252 400 meters Aanderaa RCM 06 Oct 88 - 16 Mar 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 252 800 meters Aanderaa RCM 06 Oct 88 - 05 Mar 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 252 1200 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 20 Jun 90 view metadata download record
Mooring 252 2400 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 15 Oct 89 view metadata download record
Mooring 252 3800 meters VACM 06 Oct 88 - 10 Mar 90 view metadata download record

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Description of STACS-10

The STACS-10 records included here were produced by the third of five consecutive current meter arrays that were deployed off Abaco Island in the subropical western Atlantic (see map). The five arrays covered a 7-year period beginning in 1986 and were designed to provide insight into climate-relevant flow transients in the western bounday current. Only the final two mooring arrays, which span the period from June 1990 through June 1993, have been designated ACM1; however,we hope eventually to include all five arrays in this database.

STACS is an acronym standing for Subtropical Atlantic Climate Studies. The current meter data will be used together with ongoing cable-derived transports of the Florida Current to estimate the volume and heat transport of the thermohaline circulation at 26 deg N.

The moorings were instrumented with Aanderaa current meters and VACMs. All of the meters measured current speed and direction, and temperature. The top one or two meters at each mooring also measured pressure.

Related publications

Zantopp R.J., T.N.Lee and W.E.Johns (1990): Moored current meter observations east of Abaco, Bahamas, at 26.5 deg N (STACS-10 Array). University of Miami RSMAS Technical Report 90-002, 10 pp.

Lee, T.N., W.E. Johns, R.J. Zantopp and E.R. Fillenbaum (1996): Moored observations of Western Boundary Current variability and thermocline circulation at 26.5N in the subtropical North Atlantic. J. Phys. Oceanog., 26(6), 962-983.

Johns, W.E., T.N. Lee, R.J. Zantopp and E. Fillenbaum (1997): Updated transatlantic heat flux at 26.5N. International WOCE Newsletter, 27, 15-22.

Fillenbaum, E.R., T.N. Lee, W.E. Johns and R.J. Zantopp (1997): Meridional heat transport variability at 26.5N in the North Atlantic. J. Phys. Oceanog., 27(1), 153-174.

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Format of the current records

These files have been compressed with the ZIP compression utility. After downloading them, you will need to expand them. WinZip or Pkzip will do the job on a PC that is running Microsoft Windows. Under Linux, gunzip will expand these files. Other utilities are available for the UNIX and Macintosh environments (for example, unzip and/or gunzip are present on most UNIX systems). After expansion, you will have binary files in the netCDF format.

netCDF is a self-documenting format that can be accessed by a variety of software tools. You can click here to learn about netCDF and available software packages that can be used to read and manipulate netCDF files.

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