INTERNATIONAL DECADE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION COASTAL UPWELLING ECOSYSTEMS ANALYSIS Technical Report 66 ATLAS OF THE JOINT IL 1977 AIRCRAFT WINDS FOR THE 500 FOOT LEVEL GE l, ae YT ae. aoe Florida State University Department Of Meteorology = 5 Tallahassee , Florida 323506 Prepared Under NSF Grant OCE77-277 Reference; FSU-MET-STU 8I-4 Ls July 198!ABSTRACT Maps of winds at 500 ft are presented for twelve (12) individual flights using aircraft data gathered during daytime (1000-1500 L) flights made in March-April-May as part of JOINT II 1977, Details of the data reduction and analysis techniques are discussed, The total wind field is shown by maps of the streamlines and isotachs while the alongshore (V7) and onshore (Vy) components are shown by isotach maps. Maps of the 500 ft winds on the individual flights reveal: (1) the flow is generally steady and parallel to the coast but with onshore flow near the mouth of the Ica River, (2) marked spatial variation of the isotachs with the average maximum of i3.7ms 3, @) the Vp and the average minimum of 4.2 ms” and Vy component isotachs reveal the effects of thermal circu- lations and channelling by the coastal mountains, (4) the maxima of Vp at 500 ft fluctuate much like the V, at the sur- face at San Juan, Peru, and (5) the results for 1977 are similar to those for 1976, but the 1977 data provided more spatial detail and include data from flights on days with weak alongshore surface winds (4 m s4ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are indebted to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) who provided the Queen Air along with pilots and support personnel via their Research Aircraft Facility (RAF). RAP also performed the basic data quality control and processing leading to the users tape and microfiln. The Florida State University (FSU) Computing Center was invaluable for the further processing of the NCAR tapes. Prograns to handle the NCAR tapes and some of the computer graphics were developed by Paul Duval and W. Peter Wirfel. Many organizations and individuals within Peru made our field operations run smoothly. We are particularly indebted to Admiral Indacochea of IMARPE, General Piccone of SENAMHI, and the CORPAC personnel at the Pisco Airport. Thanks are due to the numerous FSU students who over the years were involved in various aspects of the field work and data processing. The manuscript was typed by Mrs. Janina Richards. Finally, we are indebted to National Science Foundation (NSF) for their support of these studies as part of the CUEA Progran under IDOE. ii