A CLASI visit to Monterey Bay

The SUSTAIN lab made the journey to the Left Coast in the beginning of June to participate in a series of field operations in Monterey Bay alongside the Naval Research Lab Monterey, the Naval Postgraduate School, and with technical support from the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory. 

Other than enjoying the rejuvenating  power of a Central California summer, the goal of this field work was to collect data that can be used for validating a high resolution weather forecasts. The project, Coastal Land Air-Sea Interaction (CLASI), is aimed at examining how well these models do along the coastal margins and Monterey Bay is well-suited for being a test area.

We used two research vessels to make observations in the bay, the R/V John Martin of the Moss Landing Marine Lab (the white ship in the foreground) and a RHIB (background, orange pontoons) on loan from the Naval Postgraduate School. The ship measurements were complimented by an array of shore stations (panorama below) deployed by the Postgraduate School. 

It was a fun time in Monterey Bay working with a great crew of researchers and I can't wait for our next foray.

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Scum lines radiating from Pt. Pinos (southern edge of Monterey Bay). There was a strong southerly surge coming into the bay originating from down near St. Luis Obispo.

Beautiful California day up by Santa Cruz. Also, a nice example of short wave suppression by the kelp forest canopy. We are looking west, and a few kilometers further along the coast the wind was 20-30 knts with 3-4 foot wind waves. Pretty pleasant here though.