Overflow, circulation and biodiversity - Cruise No. M85/2 - August 05 - August 25, 2011 - St. John's (Canada) - Reykjavik (Island) (English)

The R/V METEOR M85/2 expedition was carried out jointly by the GEOMAR and the Institut für Meereskunde at the KlimaCampus of the University of Hamburg. A colleague of the U.K. Lowestoft Laboratory of CEFAS, U.K., and eight students from the Universities of Kiel, Hamburg and Bremen, and from the Technical University of Tallinn, Estonia, and Princeton University, U.S. participated in the cruise and supported the field work conducted. The main objectives of the cruise were related to studies on water mass transformation processes and transports in the northern North Atlantic. During the cruise the following objectives where achieved: 1. Installation of a pilot-mooring array to study the export of deep waters from the Labrador Sea through Flemish Pass 2. Redeployment of a mooring in the Central Irminger Sea (CIS), including the installation of two new types of open ocean data telemetry systems 3. Recovery of three (DS5, DS6, DS7) and redeployment of five (UK1, UK2, F2, G1, DS2) moorings related to study mixing and entrainment processes in the Denmark Strait overflow 4. Acquisition of synoptic hydrography/currents/oxygen/CFC data at key sections in the overflow region 5. Deployment of two Argo floats (with oxygen sensors) The scientific aspects of this work were supported through the BMBF project North Atlantic and the EU FP7 project THOR.