In order to show efficiently the large amount of data obtained during the Long Term Upper Ocean Study (LOTUS), a new method of data presentation was developed. Three data variables can be included in a simple color contour plot, but if successive color contour plots are recorded on videotape, a fourth variable, time, can also be shown. This report documents the process of making a videotape presenting scientific data in this way, from raw data to finished videotape. The videotape shows internal wave kinetic energy versus frequency and depth; the time variation of the videotape displays real time variation in the ratio of 14/30 second to one week, or about 1 month of data very 2 seconds. Keywords: Oceanographic data; Data displays; color coding; LOTUS Project; Moored instruments; Scientific videotapes; Dynamic data presentation.

The Sea Duct Ocean-Bottom Laboratory is a computer controlled recirculating inverted flume for the in-situ study of sediment transport. It is designed to measure the sea floor response to controlled currents analogous to those generated by surface waves, tidal, or deep ocean storms. The external support frame is an equilateral triangle with sixteen foot sides. It is 12 feet high, has an air weight of 12,500 lbs., and a 2800 lb. submerged weight. Three lead acid battery packs located at the vertex of the triangle legs provide power for the recirculating water pumps, hydraulic power, and ancillary equipment. The inner rotatable structure consists of a 4 foot long by 2 foot wide open bottom windowed test section that is 9 inches high. It is connected to 30 feet of 8 inch tube configured as an elongated toroid. Above the test section is a traverse carriage with stereo camera, flash, and a laser Doppler velocimeter to measure fluid stresses. Internal flow velocities are controlled and can be ramped up to approximately 2 ft/sec providing shear stress sufficient to scour sand, silts, and fine clays. Water and sediment sampling devices obtain specimens from inside and outside the test section.

In October, 1984, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution SOFAR float group began a three-year long field program to observe the low frequency currents in the Canary Basin. The principal scientific goal was to learn how advection and diffusion by these currents determine the shape and amplitude of the Mediterranean salt tongue. Fourteen floats were launched at a depth of 1100 min a cluster centered on 32N, 24W, and seven other floats were launched incoherently along a north/south line from 24N to 37N. At the same time investigators from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Rhode Island used four other SOFAR floats to tag a submesoscale lens of Mediterranean water. Slightly over twenty years of float trajectories were p reduced during the first year of the experiment. In this report we briefly describe the 1984 field operations and show the first year's SOFAR float data. Perhaps the most striking result is that westward flow within the Mediterranean salt tongue was found to be confined to a rather narrow jet {roughly 150 km in meridional extent) which had a mean speed of roughly 2 em s -l. To the north or south of this jet the mean flow was much weaker and eastward. This suggests that currents associated with the salt tongue itself {rather than the gyre scale circulation) may be most important for determining the salt distribution.