RAPID: A Cost-Effective Approach for Characterizing Variability at High Temporal Resolution for Long Duration on the Continental Slope of the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight

This RAPID project is to deploy instrumentation to study the behavior of the Gulf Stream at the region where it detaches from the continental margin. Instrument deployments will be leveraged by ongoing activities in the area, as part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative's Pioneer array, near the shelf break north of Cape Hatteras. Likewise, these deployments will provide complementary information to that obtained from the Pioneer array. The RAPID project will involve students at different stages in college and graduate school. This one-year RAPID grant is to deploy two inverted echo sounders (CPIEs, with current meters and pressure sensors) over the continental slope north of Cape Hatteras, where the Gulf Stream separates from the continental margin. Instruments will be installed at depths of 1000 m during a period of 4 years. Deployments will take place in June 2024 with ships of opportunity and adjacent to the new location of the Coastal Pioneer Array. Data will be sent to shore via satellite link and shared via a Zenodo repository. Information from these deployments will complement continental shelf data from the Pioneer array, and will be used to study multi-scale (in time) processes associated with Gulf Stream separation from the continental margin. As Broader Impacts, the CPIEs measurements will help in quantification of exchange processes between the shelf and the open ocean. The project will include two undergraduate and two graduate students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.