| Aquantis, LLC, Santa Barbara, California intends to construct and deploy an ocean current turbine (C-Plane) to extract electrical power from the kinetic energy of the Florida Current. This study characterizes the physical oceanographic environment of the Florida Current flow, at a proposed deployment site located at 26.11 North Latitude, 79.50 West Longitude, which will influence the physical and mechanical design of the C-Plane.; Local characteristic features of the Florida Current were determined from data collected during a 19 month in situ study using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) moored at 330 meters, a ship-mounted, inertial-correcting ADCP, and data culled from adjacent studies. Principles of physical oceanography and direct observations are applied to characterize the velocity structure of the current and its variability.; This thesis presents the motivation behind the study, methods of data collection, statistical and numerical analyses, and available energy analyses. |
