The sensors are distributed on one atmospheric and one oceanic gondola.
The aim is to measure surface physical parameters (air and sea surface temperatures, sea surface salinity, wind, pressure and humidity) and to derive turbulent fluxes of moisture, heat and momentum. The Aeroclippers will give legs of the different parameters at a temporal resolution of 15mn and thus information on the perturbation of these parameters at mesoscale.
The equilibrium between the aerodynamical drag of the balloon and the hydrodynamical drag of the oceanic gondola gives a displacement speed of about half of the wind speed.
The Coare 3.0 (Fairall et al, 2003) bulk flux algorithm is used to derive the surface turbulent fluxes from the Aeroclipper measurements. The height of the atmospheric measurements is estimated using the relative wind measurements and a mechanical model of the Aeroclipper system.