Physical oceanography during POLARSTERN cruise ARK-XIX/4b

Exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean result in the most dramatic water mass conversions in the World Ocean: warm and saline Atlantic waters, flowing through the Nordic Seas into the Arctic Ocean, are modified by cooling, freezing and melting to become shallow fresh waters, ice and saline deep waters. The outflow from the Nordic Seas to the south provides the initial driving of the global thermohaline circulation cell. Knowledge of these fluxes and understanding of the modification processes is a major prerequisite for the quantification of the rate of overturning within the large circulation cells of the Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans, and is also a basic requirement for understanding the role of these ocean areas in climate variability on interannual to decadal time scales. The Fram Strait represents the only deep connection between the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas. Just as the freshwater transport from the Arctic Ocean is of major influence on convection in the Nordic Seas and further south, the transport of warm and saline Atlantic water affects the water mass characteristics in the Arctic Ocean which has consequences for the internal circulation and possibly influences also ice and atmosphere. The West Spitsbergen Current carrying Atlantic Water northward. The East Greenland Current, carrying water from the Arctic Ocean southwards has a concentrated core above the continental slope. It is our aim to measure the oceanic fluxes through Fram Strait and to determine their variability in seasonal to decadal time scales. 53 CTD profiles were taken at 51 stations. Two CTD systems from Sea-Bird Electronics Inc SBE911+ were used. Mainly SN 561 with duplicate T and C sensors (temperature sensors SBE3, SN 2685 and 2678, conductivity sensors SBE4, SN 2325 and 2618 and pressure sensor Digiquartz 410K-105 SN 75659) was in service. For the control of the temperature sensors a SBE35 RT digital reversing thermometer, SN 27 was applied. The CTD was connected to a SBE32 Carousel Water Sampler, SN 273 (24 12-liter bottles). For 3 CTD-Stations (726-3, 727-1, 728-1) the Sea-Bird 911+ probe SN 485 was used with temperature sensor SBE3 SN 2460, conductivity sensor SBE4 SN 2054, pressure sensor Digiquartz 410K SN 68997 and the SBE32 Carousel Water Sampler SN 202. Additionally Benthos Altimeters Model 2110-2, SN 189 and SN 208 and Wetlabs C-Star Transmissiometers SN 403 and SN 267 were mounted on the carousels. During the cruise a total number of 184 water samples were analysed with a Guildline Autosal 8400B salinometer, and IAPSO standard seawater batch number P141, K=0.99993. 20 salinity samples were brought back to AWI for onshore analysis. The CTD sensors were calibrated before and after the cruise by Sea-Bird Electronics.