STEP—A Temperature Profiler for Measuring the Oceanic Thermal Boundary Layer at the Ocean–Air Interface

Abstract

A fast measuring system has been designed and built to determine the oceanic thermal microstructure at the ocean?air interface. The system consists of a profiler sonde, which amends through the uppermost few meters of the ocean with a time of typically 1 m s?1 and carries a fast temperature sensor with a time constant of 0.5 ms and a surface detector. The data rate is 8000 measurements per second and the achieved resolution in temperature is 0.01 K. The instrument has been designed for rough off-shore treatment and to avoid any disturbance of the boundary layer during measurements. Some measurements of the ?cool skin? are shown from in situ experiments.