Flux gradient measurements from a catamaran buoy in SEMAPHORE

During the SEMAPHORE Structure des Echanges Mer Atmosphere Proprietes des Heterogeneities de L`Ocean leur Repartition (Structure of Exchanges with the Marine Atmosphere, Properties of Heterogeneities of the Ocean and their Repartition) experiment in the fall of 1993, a large catamaran buoy, the MENTOR, was set adrift in the Azores region. The purpose of the buoy was to provide measurements for testing flux-profile relations over the sea, and to measure the influence of sea state on the turbulent fluxes and atmospheric profiles and the effects of atmospheric and radiative fluxes on near surface temperature structure in the ocean. In addition, the buoy measurements were to provide an anchor point for calibrating mesoscale bulk surface flux estimates over the SEMAPHORE domain and to provide intercomparison data for dissipation estimates of fluxes from the R/V Le Suroit.