U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region Technical Announcement

Observation of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Study
in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico

OCS Study MMS 2002-028

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, Observation of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Study in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico. This report presents the field observations of upper air wind and temperature, surface wind, surface temperature, surface relative humidity, surface pressure, and sea surface temperature, which were collected at two offshore platform sites at Vermillion and South Marsh Island for a continuous 40-month period from 1998 to 2002. The purpose of this study was to obtain field data describing the vertical structure of the marine boundary layer over the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico for meteorological and air pollution applications.

Two sites at Vermillion and South Marsh Island were selected for this study. One is located at a shallow-water location to collect data that will help measure how the marine boundary layer is affected by the land/sea breeze mechanism, and the other is at a deepwater location to collect data that will help measure how the marine boundary layer is affected by interaction between advecting air masses and colder waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The collected database provides the type of direct atmospheric measurements needed to define better the vertical structure of the marine boundary layer in order to reduce uncertainties in environmental assessments.

Meteorological measurement equipment includes a 915-MHz pulsed-Doppler radar profiler at each site to collect upper air wind and virtual temperature data, and a suite of standard in-situ sensors to collect surface (platform level) wind, temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and sea surface temperature data.

You can obtain copies of the report from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at a charge of $10.00 by referencing OCS Study MMS 2002-028. You will be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future. Here are the addresses. You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.