The aim of this NERC-funded project was to make direct measurement of the turbulent air-sea fluxes of CO2, sea-spray aerosol, sensible and latent heat and momentum in order to improve the parameterisation of these fluxes in terms of mean meteorological and sea-state variables.
In order to do this we installed a range of instrumentation, including the autonomous air-sea flux system "AutoFlux" and a directional wave radar "WAVEX", on the British Antarctic Survery ship, the RRS James Clark Ross.
The WAGES instruments operated continuously for 3 years, from May 2010 to July 2013, and obtained data in a wide range of conditions particularly the poorly-understood high wind speed regime. The figure shows the cruise track during the 3 year measurement campaign (click on it for a larger image).
WAGES was a joint project with the University of Leeds. WAGES was preceded by a similar 3-year (2006-2009) continuous flux measurement campaign on the Ocean Weather Ship Polarfront as part of the UK-SOLAS project HiWASE.
NERC – Discovery Science