The Marine light - mixed layer experiment cruise and data report, R/V Endeavor : cruise EN-224, mooring deployment, 27 April-1 May 1991, cruise EN-227, mooring recovery, 5-23 September 1991

Abstract

The Marine Light - Mixed Layer experiment took place in the sub-Arctic North Atlantic ocean, approximately 275 miles south of Reykjavik, Iceland. The field program included a central surface mooring to document the temporal evolution of physical, biological and optical properties. The surface mooring was deployed at approximately 59°N, 21°W on 29 April 1991 and recovered on 6 September 1991. The Upper Ocean Processes Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was responsible for design, preparation, deployment, and recovery of the mooring. The Group's contrbution to the field measurements included four different types of sensors: a meteorological observation package on the surface buoy, a string of 15 temperature sensors along the mooring line, an acoustic Doppler current profiler, and four instruments for measuring mooring tension and accelerations. The observations obtained from the mooring are sufficient to describe the air-sea fluxes and the local physical response to surface forcing. The objective in the analysis phase will be to determine the factors controlling this physical response and to work towards an understanding of the links among physical, biological, and optical processes. This report describes the deployment and recovery of the mooring, the meteorological data, and the subsurface temperature and current data.