Reykjanes Ridge Experiment (RREX) dataset

The Reykjanes Ridge is a major topographic feature of the North-Atlantic Ocean. It lies in a central position along the main paths followed by the upper and lower limbs of the Meridional Overturning Cell (MOC), which contributes at moderating the European climate in creating a transport of heat towa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thierry, Virginie, Mercier, Herle, Petit, Tillys, Branellec, Pierre, Balem, Kevin, Lherminier, Pascale
Format: Dataset
Language:unknown
Published: SEANOE 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.17882/55445
https://www.seanoe.org/data/00443/55445/
Description
Summary:The Reykjanes Ridge is a major topographic feature of the North-Atlantic Ocean. It lies in a central position along the main paths followed by the upper and lower limbs of the Meridional Overturning Cell (MOC), which contributes at moderating the European climate in creating a transport of heat toward the North Atlantic. Our hypothesis is that the Reykjanes Ridge influences the main components of the upper and lower limbs of the MOC because it is a strong constraint on the horizontal and vertical circulation, it impacts the water mass distribution and evolution and it is a region of intense turbulent mixing. The objective of the RREX project is to conduct a process study in order to better understand the role of the Reykjanes Ridge on the dynamics and water mass transformation in the subpolar gyre and ultimately on the MOC. This project relied on two hydrographic cruises carried out in 2015 and 2017 to acquire the adequate dataset to (1) provide a synoptic high-resolution and full depth survey to monitor the flow along and across the ridge, (2) to quantify the variability of the vertical and horizontal structure of the currents parallel to the ridge at daily to seasonal time-scales and (3) to provide sufficient turbulence observations to monitor the heterogeneous and intermittent mixing processes. This dataset currently provides the measurements from the 133 CTDO2 stations realized during the RREX2015 cruise, carried out from the 5th of June to the 10th of July 2015. At each station, the following measurements are available: (1) pressure, temperature, conductivity and dissolved oxygen measurements with a CTDO2 probe, (2) salinity and oxygen concentration data from sea water samples at 28 levels. It also provides OS38 and OS150 S-ADCP data acquried in transit during the RREX2015 cruise. The two datasets were processed and adjusted following Petit et al. 2018 [http://doi.org/10.13155/53471].