2009 Goose Bay Experiment Ocean Measurements

During late February and early March 2009, a field experiment was performed using the NASA P3 over the Labrador Sea. During this experiment, expendable probes deployed from the aircraft acquired ocean mixed layer temperature, salinity and currents Probes were deployed during three flights of the four. Overall 7 AXBTs, 15 AXCTDs and 7 AXCPs were deployed with a success rate of nearly 70%. This is much lower than expected based on prior experience deploying from other aircraft. But given the difficulties associated with the Pneumatic Sonobuoy Launch Tube mechanism on the NASA P3, this rate likely can be improved significantly by using a different deployment mechanism. Additionally, two sets of collocated measurements of AXBTs, AXCPs and AXCTDs were made to verify the drop rates and measurements of the old AXBTs. While there were differences in the measurements, the old AXCTDs are performing well. The expendable data from the experiment are compared to the Argo profiles in the region to check for consistency. Comparisons indicate all the expendable probes acquired useful data and are well within the range of values measured by Argo floats.