RV Ronald H. Brown Cruise RB0602 and RRS Discovery Cruise D304, Rapid Mooring Cruise Report March and May 2006

Abstract

This report describes the mooring operations conducted during RV Ronald H. Brown Cruise RB0602 and RRS Discovery Cruise D304. Cruise RB0602 was conducted between 9 March 2006 and 28 March 2006, and Cruise D304 was conducted between 12 May 2006 and 6 June 2006.These mooring operations were completed as part of the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded RAPID Programme to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5ºN. The primary purpose of these cruises was to service the 26.5ºN mooring array first deployed in 2004 during RRS Discovery cruises D277 and D278 (SOC cruise report number 53), and serviced in 2005 during RRS Charles Darwin Cruise CD170 and RV Knorr Cruise KN182-2 (NOCS cruise report number 2), and RRS Charles Darwin Cruise CD177 (NOCS cruise report number 5).Cruise RB0602 was from Barbados to Charleston, SC, and covered the Western Boundary moorings deployed on KN182-2. Cruise D304 was to and from Tenerife and covered the Eastern Boundary and Mid-Atlantic Ridge moorings deployed on cruises CD170 and CD177. These cruises are the second annual refurbishment of an array of moorings deployed across the Atlantic in order to set up a pre-operational prototype system to continuously observe the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC). Cruise CD177 was an intermediate service cruise to obtain data from the two principal Eastern Boundary moorings six months after deployment. This array will be further refined and refurbished during subsequent years. The instruments deployed on the array consists of a variety of current meters, bottom pressure recorders, CTD loggers and Inverted Echosounders, which, combined with time series measurements of the Florida Channel Current and wind stress estimates, will be used to determine the strength and structure of the MOC at 26.5ºN. (http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/rapidmoc)<br/