CURRENT DIRECTION, SALINITY - SURFACE WATER and other data from DRIFTING PLATFORM in the Gulf of Mexico and Coastal Waters of Gulf of Mexico from 1992-08-13 to 1995-08-05 (NCEI Accession 9600132)

The study was conducted to aid MMS in reducing risks associated with oil and gas operations on the continental shelf along the Texas and Louisiana coasts from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Rio Grande. Begun in September 1991, it was the largest physical oceanography program ever undertaken in the Gulf. The program consists of three major parts: LATEX A, B, and C, conducted by the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), Louisiana State University (LSU), and Science Applications International Corp.

(SAIC), respectively. LATEX C was carried out by researchers at SAIC and the University of Colorado. Loop Current eddies, slope eddies, and squirts and jets within the Gulf of Mexico were located and tracked by air-deployed temperature profiling instruments and drifting buoys.

Using these data, scientists assessed the impact of these Gulf-wide, circulation features on shelf circulation and identified the processes that interact with the shelf.