Experimento Cassino -- NPS Nearshore Data and Instruments

For the month of May 2005, the Naval Postgraduate School deployed an instrument tower including vertical arrays of 5 electromagnetic current meters (EMs) and 4 optical backscatter turbidity sensors (OBSs) as well as 2 pressure sensors, offshore of Cassino Beach, RS, Brazil. In addition, four PUVs (each with a pressure gauge, an EM current meter, and two OBSs) were deployed in a cross-shore array at the same alongshore location as the instrument tower. The tower was deployed in approximately 2 meters depth, while the depths of the PUVs ranged from 0.5m to 2.8m. This web page includes a labeled picture of the tower and sample data plots from some of the instruments.

(Click on images to see full-size versions.)

Figure 1: Instrument tower with EM Current Meters, Optical Backscatter Sensors (OBSs), and Pressure Sensors

Figure 2: Climatology plot from instrument tower, including sig. wave height, peak period, current velocity at EM current meter #3, and uncalibrated turbidity (mV) at OBS4 (highest) and OBS1 (lowest) on tower (Data are plotted versus Julian day or "yearday" in 2005).

Figure 3: Cross-shore (U) and alongshore (V) current profiles from four highest tower EMs on 5 consecutive days

Figure 4: Wave spectra versus frequency from pressure sensors on four PUVs (PUV1 is nearest the shoreline -- about 0.5m depth; PUV4 is farthest offshore -- about 2.8m depth)