Inverted Echo Sounders in the Denmark Strait, as part of FS Poseidon 290 [POS290], June 6, 2002 – June 24, 2002

• Main Author: Hargreaves, G. W.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Bidston Observatory 2003
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Climate change; Denmark Strait; North Atlantic; North atlantic Thermohaline circulation
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/27468/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/27468/1/poseidon290_02.pdf

The overflow of cold dense water from the Denmark Strait is one of the key elements of the north Atlantic thermohaline circulation and has important consequences for global climate change. It is important to measure the transport of this water and to understand its variability on seasonal and at longer time scales. The European funded project "Variability of Exchanges in Northern Seas" (VEINS MAS3CT960070) was an attempt to measure variations in the Arctic circulation using modern oceanographic instrumentation. The current program is a continuation of this research and may contribute to a proposed new program, Arctic Sub-Arctic Ocean Fluxes (ASOF). A combined Inverted Echo Sounder and Bottom Pressure Recorder was successfully recovered and re-deployed in the Denmark Strait to measure the thickness of this cold dense water and thus determine transport.