Raye, Robert Eric.

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.