The Design and Performance of Free-Fall Microstructure Instruments,

Abstract : This report covers the design, manufacture, and operational characteristics of four different free-fall microstructure instruments developed at the Institute of Oceanography. After the first two instruments were designed for studying temperature microstructure and electrical conductivity fluctuations as well as a sensor for turbulent velocity measurements, a third instrument was built to further the velocity microstructure work. The fourth design was made as simple as possible to allow for multiple drops to study the variation in time and space. While four distinct instrument formats have been developed, the last two are the most important in terms of the data that have been collected.