Alaska IWR 2025 Summer

As part of the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP) Global Internal Wave (NGIW) study, Internal Wave Resolving (IWR) Arrays are being deployed to collect high-frequency in situ measurements that can resolve the energy flux associated with internal waves propagating through the deep ocean by combining high vertical- resolution moorings to resolve the waves’ modal structure with an antenna of vertically- integrated measures of variability to resolve the speed and direction of beam propagation. The IWR Arrays are re-deployable to multiple locations and this cruise aims to deploy an array in the deep ocean off the Alaskan slope. The IWR Array comprises nine current and pressure-sensor equipped inverted echo sounders (CPIESs) surrounding a densely instrumented, full-depth mooring. The CPIES antenna will allow for the detection and separation of low-mode internal waves propagating from multiple directions, while the mooring will measure velocity and vertical displacement signals of five or more vertical modes. By working in partnership will numerical modelers, the array will allow for skill-testing and direct comparison with the global internal-tide resolving models that serve as inputs to regional models of the coastal ocean.