LAgrangian Transport EXperiment 2007-2011
PI Physics : A. Petrenko,
PI Biogeochemistry : F. Diaz
This LATEX project was a forerunner in the adaptive real-time Lagrangian navigation strategy and the use of an inert tracer, SF6, whose Lagrangian coastal launch was a French first.
Consolidated cost : 2M€
Financed by LEFE IDAO-CYBER and PACA Region
LATEX Campaign publications
Website of the French Oceanographic Fleet - LATEX campaigns
The six major advances de LATEX consist of :
- the characterisation of these coastal eddy structures and the discovery and description of two different principles for generating these structures;
- highlighting coherent Lagrangian structures on the continental shelf using coastal altimetry;
- the impact of a coastal eddy structure on the spatial distribution of nutrients and plankton;
- the calculation of horizontal turbulent diffusivity using two different methods, one of which uses an inert tracer, SF6 ;
- comparison of vertical diffusion parameters obtained from in situ measurements with those of models (NUMEROFIX, PI Marsaleix) to assess the impact of their respective variabilities on physical results and, if coupled physical-biogeochemical modelling is used, on biogeochemistry and biology;
- setting up reference tools (available on the web) to carry out campaigns at sea in a Lagrangian reference frame.
LATEX has led to the development of reference software (LatexTools, available on the web) for carrying out campaigns at sea in a Lagrangian reference frame. In addition, the techniques for adaptive Lagrangian navigation strategies in near-real time introduced during LATEX are now being reused and further developed as part of SPASSO (Software Package for an Adaptive Satellite-based Sampling for Ocean campaigns) in current and future programmes (OUTPACE, OSCAHR, PEACETIME, Proteus-SWOT, Bio-SWOT, Moana-Maty, FUMSECK, APERO, etc.).
