9617869 Rossby This project is to develop a profiling current meter that can operate from the surface to depths as great as 5000 meters. Called the EM-POGO, it is a merger of two well- established techniques, the expendable current profiler (XCP) and the dropsonde, also known as the POGO. The XCP technique yields the vertical structure of ocean currents to a relative accuracy of 1-2 cm/s, and the dropsonde displacement measures the vertically averaged velocity also to about 1-2 cm/s. The complete instrument will weigh about 15 kg enabling it to be deployed by hand and hence used from boats of any size. The appeal of the instrument lies in its high accuracy, ease and speed of use, and low cost. These attributes should lead to considerable interest in it for a number of research applications. The necessary technology is well-known; the proposed work consists of adapting these two techniques into one operating system. The resulting technology will be made available for commercial fabrication.
