Physical Oceanographic Observations in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait

During February 1972, scientific personnel operating from the Louis S. St. Laurent obtained the first winter oceanographic temperature and salinity data from Baffin Bay. Six oceanographic stations were occupied: one in central Baffin Bay; a second in eastern Baffin Bay southeast of the first; and a cross-section of 4 stations in southern Davis Strait .... The temperature and salinity data were obtained using discrete samples from Knudsen bottles, equipped with deep-sea reversing thermometers, and an in situ recording salinity/temperature/depth unit (STD). Temperatures and salinities determined from the discrete water samples were used to calibrate the STD and correct it for drift, while the STD was used to detect fine structure in the vertical distributions of temperature and salinity. ... The temperatures presented ... were those obtained from the reversing thermometers. ... they are presented here in comparison with summer data from the same region .... While it is not possible to draw quantitative conclusions from the small amount of available information, it appears that the deep vertical distributions of temperature and salinity in central and southeastern Baffin Bay and Davis Strait may not undergo significant seasonal variation. Observed near-surface variations may be accounted for qualitatively by a combination of winter cooling, freezing and convective mixing and summer meltwater addition. The apparent constancy of flow through Davis Strait is of particular interest. It has been demonstrated that for sufficient heat to be present in the water column for prevention of ice formation in the open lead in northern Baffin Bay known as the North Water, northerly flow of warm water (>0°C) would have to be greater than observed during the summer months. That this does not appear to be the case strengthens the hypothesis... that the open water is due to a southward advection of ice by winds and currents rather than by heat from the water column preventing formation of the ice

Nutrient and biogenic particulate distributions, primary productivity and nitrogen uptake in the Weddell-Scotia Sea marginal ice zone during winter

During austral winter of 1988, we determined the distributions of inorganic nutrients (nitrate, silicic acid, phosphate, nitrite and ammonium) and particulate materials (chlorophyll, biogenic silica, particulate organic carbon and particulate organic nitrogen), as well as primary productivity and rates of nutrient (NO3− and NH4+) uptake in the upper 150 m of the marginal ice zone of the Weddell-Scotia Sea. Nutrient concentrations were high and particulate matter levels were low throughout the study area, but occasionally nutrient minima and particulate maxima occurred near the ice edge associated with warm-core eddies. Chlorophyll concentrations and primary productivity averaged 0.12 μg l−1 and 32 mg C m−2 d−1, respectively. Surface growth rates calculated from carbon uptake and total particulate organic carbon were very low (ca. 0.03 doublings d−1), but living phytoplankton only comprised about 10% of the POC in the surface layer. Thus, mean phytoplankton growth rates appear to have been between 0.1 and 0.2 doublings d−1. Although nitrate was about 40 times as abundant as ammonium, ammonium was consistently the preferred substrate of the plankton assemblages, accounting for over half of the nitrogen taken up. Paired samples from the same depth and vertically integrated f-ratios averaged 0.43. Both ammonium and nitrate were removed at rates that individually exceeded the apparent nitrogen demand of the phytoplankton, implying significant heterotrophic uptake of inorganic nitrogen

Internal waves and tides in the western Weddell Sea: Observations from Ice Station Weddell

The upper ocean current and temperature fields in the western Weddell Sea were measured from the drifting pack ice at Ice Station Weddell 1 (ISW) and nearby sites using a vertical profiler and an array of moored sensors in January–June 1992. These data document the structure and variability of the internal gravity wave field and tidal currents in this remote region. The variance of the internal wave continuum (ƒ < frequency < N) at ISW was 0.2–0.6 of the Garrett‐Munk (GM) universal level for the first 60 days, increasing to near GM levels during the final 10 days of the deployment. In contrast, the energy density at site C, 50 km west of ISW and farther up the continental slope, was always near GM levels. Variations may be due to a combination of spatial and temporal gradients of the internal wave field. At ISW, coherence between vertically separated sensors was used to estimate vertical wave number bandwidth. Energy and bandwidth estimates are compared with previous studies in both ice‐covered and temperate oceans. Using our measurements of the internal wave field and existing parameterizations of mixing, we estimate the vertical heat flux from the Warm Deep Water toward the surface. At ISW the upward heat flux due to mixing associated with the internal waves was about 1 W m⁻², much less than the 20 W m⁻² average flux required to balance the heat budget for the Weddell Gyre. Tidal currents contributed significantly to the total measured horizontal velocity variance. The tides were primarily barotropic and increased toward the west in both the semidiurnal and diurnal frequency bands. It is suggested that the stronger tidal currents to the west, over the shallower water of the upper continental slope, are indirectly responsible for the higher internal wave energy at site C relative to ISW

A multi-wavelength census of stellar contents in the young cluster NGC 1624

We present a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis of the young cluster NGC 1624 associated with the H II region Sh2-212 using optical UBVRI photometry, optical spectroscopy and GMRT radio continuum mapping along with the near-infrared (NIR) JHK archival data. Reddening E(B-V) and distance to the cluster are estimated to be 0.76 - 1.00 mag and 6.0 +/- 0.8 kpc, respectively. Present analysis yields a spectral class of O6.5V for the main ionizing source of the region. The distribution of YSOs in (J-H)/ (H-K) NIR colour-colour diagram shows that a majority of them have A_V $\le$ 4 mag. Based on the NIR excess characteristics, we identified 120 probable candidate YSOs in this region which yield a disk frequency of ~ 20%. These YSOs are found to have an age spread of ~ 5 Myr with a median age of ~ 2-3 Myr and a mass range of ~ 0.1 - 3.0 $M_\odot$. A significant number of YSOs are located close to the cluster centre and we detect an enhanced density of reddened YSOs located/projected close to the molecular clumps at the periphery of NGC 1624. This indicates that the YSOs located within the cluster core are relatively older in comparison to those located/projected near the clumps. From the radio continuum flux, spectral class of the ionizing source of the ultra-compact H II region at the periphery of Sh2-212 is estimated to be ~ B0.5V. From optical data, slope of the mass function (MF) $\Gamma$, in the mass range $1.2 \le M/M_{\odot}<27$ can be represented by a single power law with a slope -1.18 +/- 0.10, whereas the NIR data in the mass range $0.65 \le M/M_{\odot}<27$ yields $\Gamma$ = -1.31 +/- 0.15. The slope of the K-band luminosity function (KLF) for the cluster is found to be 0.30 +/- 0.06 which is in agreement with the values obtained for other young clusters.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

A deep multi-band investigation of IC2391

We report the outcome of a deep multi-wavelength study of the IC2391 young open cluster. We aim at uncovering new low-mass and sub-stellar members of the cluster and identifying new debris disk objects. A 30*30 square arcmin area in IC 2391 was observed using the wide-field imager at the ESO 2.2m telescope. The completeness limits of the photometry at 3 sigma level are V=24.7, Rc=23.7 and Ic=23.0, faint enough to reveal sub-stellar members down to about 0.03 solar masses. Our membership criteria are based on the use of our optical data, in combination with JHKs magnitudes from the 2MASS catalog. We also estimate the physical parameters of the selected candidates. Debris disk candidates are identified on the basis of their infrared excess emission using near- and mid-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our optical survey, which has a limiting magnitude at 3 sigma level 1-2 mag fainter than previous optical surveys conducted in IC2391, revealed 29 new low-mass member candidates of the cluster. We estimate the contamination to be at least 50%. We constrain the fraction of sub-stellar objects in the range 8-15% and discuss possible explanations for the deficit of brown dwarfs in this cluster. We also identified 10 candidates in the cluster showing IR excess emission consistent with the presence of debris disks.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Need for speed: Examining protein behavior during cryoEM grid preparation at different timescales

A host of new technologies are under development to improve the quality and reproducibility of cryoelectron microscopy (cryoEM) grid preparation. Here we have systematically investigated the preparation of three macromolecular complexes using three different vitrification devices (Vitrobot, chameleon, and a time-resolved cryoEM device) on various timescales, including grids made within 6 ms (the fastest reported to date), to interrogate particle behavior at the air-water interface for different timepoints. Results demonstrate that different macromolecular complexes can respond to the thin-film environment formed during cryoEM sample preparation in highly variable ways, shedding light on why cryoEM sample preparation can be difficult to optimize. We demonstrate that reducing time between sample application and vitrification is just one tool to improve cryoEM grid quality, but that it is unlikely to be a generic “silver bullet” for improving the quality of every cryoEM sample preparation

The physical oceanography of the northern Baffin Bay region

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washingto

Oceanographic observations in Baffin Bay during July-September 1968

"CG 373-37."Mode of access: Internet