Tropical Instability Wave Experiment

The Tropical Instability Wave Expreiment (TIWE) is a multi- institutional, multi-investigator program aimed at furthering our understanding of planetary waves, resulting from surface current instability near the equator, which affect the upper ocean balances of mass, momentum, and heat. The Tropical Instability Wave Experiment (TIWE) consists of several elements, one of which was an array of five subsurface moored acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), centered on the equator at 140°E.

The TIWE field program consisted of several elements, including : 1) an array of subsurface acoustic Doppler current profiliers (ADCPs) centered on the equator at 140°W, 2) an array of subsurface moored mechanical profilers for currents, temperature, and salinity centered upon 2°N, 140°W, 3) shipboard hydrographic measurements to map out the property fields associated with these waves and 4) a remote sensing component mapping surface expressions by satellite. The field work associated with this project was initiated in May 1990 and lasted for approximately one year. The University of South Florida (USF), College of Marine Science contribution to this field program is the deployment of five subsurface moored acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), centered on the equator at 140°E in a diamond shaped array.