AXBTs, dropped from NOAA P-3 aircraft, measuring sea surface temperatures
Posted by Chris in Tampa on 9/11/2023, 4:09 pm
| Occasionally, NOAA drops AXBTs from the P-3s. The recon system, while configured to decode that data in real time, hasn't so far this year because they aren't being added to the file they normally go in: https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/raw/so/sofx01.kwbc..txt I added the ability to view AXBT data years ago. However, I did notice the raw obs are being released on their data site: https://seb.omao.noaa.gov/pub/flight/aamps_ingest/axbt/sent/?C=M;O=D So last night I added the data into the recon system for the ones missed this year. Here are the ones for Lee: https://hurricanecity.com/recon/recon.cgi?basin=al&year=2023&storm=Lee&product=axbt The second item on this page talks about AXBTs: https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/HRD-P3_exp.html They release it from the plane like a dropsonde. Then when it is at the water surface, it drops down a sensor that measures the water temperature on the way down. Sometimes it gets as deep as around 400 meters (around 1,300 feet). I was thinking about letting them know it wasn't coming across, but then I do see that sometimes there are errors, such as the coordinates are listed as 0 0. That means I wouldn't know where to put it and it would be rejected. Once they even had a test on land this year. Another time the temperature was colder than it should have been. And other times it just never records any data. And sometimes the water temperature is just the same all the way down its depth and I assume those are errors. So I guess it's better to review them and add them later to the system anyway. Here are some of the AXBTs from this morning as seen in the recon system for that mission:  The sea surface temperature is a little icon, in Celsius. The color coded icon appears as 28 when the temperature is between 28.00°C and 28.99°C. The data is also organized so that it is not storm specific here: https://hurricanecity.com/recon/recon.cgi?basin=al&axbt=2023 There I have maps with data for each day there are AXBTs available. There could data from multiple missions for the day. Here are the AXBTs for today on the web based map from that page:  The temperature icon on a map has some brief info when you click it, like this for the furthest south 29 icon: Product: Bathythermal Data (SOFX01 KWBC) Date Profile Data was Processed: September 11th, 2023 at 8:55:52Z Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aircraft: Lockheed WP-3D Orion (Reg. Num. N43RF) Storm Number: 13L in 2023 (flight in the North Atlantic basin) AXBT Buoy Drop (Airborne eXpendable Bathythermograph) Profile Date: September 11th, 2023 Profile Time: 8:47:35Z Profile Coordinates: 18.457N 64.405W Profile Location: 14 statute miles (23 km) to the E (82°) from Road Town, British Virgin Islands (U.K.). AXBT Channel: 16 Sea Surface Temperature: 29.54°C (85.2°F) Depth of 26°C Isotherm: 81 meters (265.7 feet) Deepest Depth of AXBT: 403.5 meters (1,323.8 feet) In the web based system where obs are listed, not on the map, you can get the temperature listed for every 1.5 meters in depth, like this for the one above: https://hurricanecity.com/recon/recon.cgi?basin=al&year=2023&product=axbt&month=09&day=11&ob=09-11-084735--29.54-81.0-403.5-18.457N-64.405W-NOAA-3 Where there is also a chart in addition to a table with the data:  This is helpful to see how deep the warm water is. If it's deep, upwelling won't impact it too much. It will churn up warmer waters. If it's not that deep, and there are cooler waters below it, it might churn them up. If a storm was moving slow, it might have a chance to stir up those cooler waters beneath it and cool off the sea surface temperatures. |
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In this thread:
GCOOS - cypresstx, 9/8/2023, 8:31 am
- Re: GCOOS - Chris in Tampa, 9/10/2023, 1:36 am
- NOAA CoastWatch / Data Portal Map Viewer - cypresstx, 9/8/2023, 10:40 am
- Re: NOAA CoastWatch / Data Portal Map Viewer - jimw, 9/10/2023, 7:28 am
- Re: NOAA CoastWatch / Data Portal Map Viewer - jimw, 9/10/2023, 7:29 am
- Re: NOAA CoastWatch / Data Portal Map Viewer - jimw, 9/10/2023, 7:28 am
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