Summary of hydrographic observations in Drake Passage

• Main Authors: Xbt Programme, Janet Sprintall
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: DIMES; Drake Passage
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.637.4628; http://www.clivar.org/sites/default/files/documents/southern/Summary_of_DP_work.pdf

and there are 57 transects to date (Figure 1). Funding for the Drake Passage XBT/XCTD program has recently been renewed by NSF Office of Polar Programs through June 2009. The sampling will be undertaken on an approximately bimonthly schedule, with 6-7 sections per year (as has been done in the past). Approximately 70 XBTs are dropped per transect every 5-15 km (closer sampling over the major fronts), beginning and ending at the 200 m isobath. The XBTs measure temperature to 800 m. The number of XCTDs dropped per cruise was recently increased from 6 to 12 casts, with spatial separation of 25-50 km. The XCTDs return temperature and salinity data to ~ 1000 m. Increased XCTD sampling is expected to lead to better transport estimates and help better resolve the salinity structure and variability of the region (Sprintall, J., 2003). Future plan is to maintain the XBT/XCTD programme. Once the deeper (2000 m) T12 probes become more reliable, I would like to use these along the transect. Figure 1: The 3 main cruise tracks that the Gould takes across Drake Passage when undertaking XBT/XCTD and ADCP surveys. Near Surface Currents measured by shipboard ADCP Teri Chereskin