FIELDWORK -> March 2004 |
The vertical density profiles provided by the moorings should allow an estimation of the vertical
structure of the return flow compensating the surface branch of the MOC. This is an essential
prerequisite to estimate the MOC and the related meridional heat transport.
Departed Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, February 26, 2004
Arrived Freeport, Grand Bahama, March 16, 2004.
D278
Departed Freeport, Grand Bahama, March 19, 2004
Arrived Freeport, Grand Bahama, March 30, 2004
Eight full-depth moorings were deployed. Three moorings were equipped with a McLane Moored Profiler
(MMP) that takes approximately one CTD profile every other day. Profilers were used instead of individual,
fixed-location CTD sensors to reduce the number of instruments that need to be calibrated.
It was decided to have several moorings near each boundary to obtain boundary current measurements
through thermal wind, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, and to provide failsafe redundancy in the
array. Also, at each boundary, one conventional full-depth mooring was deployed with 14 fixed-depth CTDs
to obtain vertical sampling throughout the water column.
While all moorings were equipped with CTDs, bottom pressure sensors, and current meters are placed on
some moorings. These instruments give information about the depth-independent part of the MOC that is
dominated by highly variable dynamics.
The presence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) complicates the endpoint monitoring of the MOC, because a
pressure drop may exist across the ridge. Below the ridge crest, the sub-basins to the east and west
have to be monitored separately. We use an MMP mooring on one side of the MAR and a conventional fixed
depth CTD mooring on the other. There are also back-up fixed-depth CTD moorings that only reach to the
ridge crest.
Additional moorings were deployed along the sloping continental shelves equipped with CTDs, bottom
pressure recorders, and current meters. The length of these moorings was varied so as to obtain
continuous observations at fixed depths. This created an alternative vertical sampling strategy that
helped solve the bottom triangle problem. This process was the continuous analogue to the sampling
strategy employed by Lynch-Stieglitz et al. (1999) who used density information inferred from
foraminiferal oxygen isotope data.
In total 22 moorings have been deployed: 9 at the eastern boundary, 4 east and west of the Mid Atlantic
Ridge and 9 at the western boundary. Figure 1 shows the approximate locations of the moorings.
Further details about the structure of the mooring array and instruments used along the western boundary,
Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and eastern boundary can be found by clicking on Figure 2.