The Mini Adaptive Sampling Test Run (MASTR) Experiment: Yucatan Channel (2024-2025)
The international MASTR (Mini-Adaptive Sampling Test-Run) Experiment (funded by US National Academies of Science – UGOS Program) simultaneously deployed multiple autonomous measurement platforms (i.e., ocean buoyancy gliders, subsurface floats, surface drifters), moorings, aircraft, and high-frequency coastal radar in the deepwater south-eastern Gulf of México and western Caribbean Sea. The principal motivation of the 2024-2025 experiment was for end-to-end data flow demonstration (simultaneous collection to dissemination) of multiple observing platforms located in multiple exclusive economic zones (Mexico, Cuba, US). The complexity of the four-dimensional structure of the Loop Current system and the spatial and temporal evolution of the circulation is revealed as the combined response to multiple forcings including topographic, tidal, geostrophic, ageostrophic, and wind forcing. Many of the near real time observations were assimilated into government, industry, and academic forecast models, with the larger dataset used in a broad range of model validation studies by academics and industry. Of value was the development of adaptive sampling tools to provide autonomous vehicle (e.g., ocean buoyancy glider and airborne assets) pilots near real-time guidance using ensemble-based uncertainty maps to identify target regions where glider data would be most useful. Another product, glider reachability maps, was similarly developed to forecast the envelope of locations a glider could reach based on the glider flight characteristics and key members of the ensemble. The tools of combined uncertainty and reachability maps as piloting aides of mobile platforms under environmental stresses are assessed in the context of optimization of trajectories.